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http://www.archive.org/details/europeeuOOcarprich 


To  my  dear  wife,  Joanna  D.  Carpenter,  the 
best  of  traveling  companions  and  the  best  of  liter- 
ary critics,  this  volume  on  Europe  is  affectionately 
dedicated. 


<Et«Bdariw»' 


CARPENTERS  GEOGRAPHIC/iL  READER 


EUROPE 


BY 


FRANK   G.   CARPENTER   - 
COMPLIMMNTS 

AMERICAN  BOOK  CO. 

A.  F.  GUNN,  G-«ii'l  '^g' 
PINE  &  BATTER V 

SAN    FHA.;:    :Si^ 


NEW   YORK  ■ :  •  CINCINNATI  • :  •  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


Carpenter's  Geographical  Readers 


NORTH  AMERICA      ....  60  cents 

SOUTH  AMERICA      ....  60  cents 

EUROPE 70  cents 

ASIA 60  cents 

AUSTRALIA,  OUR  COLONIES,  AND 

OTHER  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA .  60  cents 

AFRICA {In  preparation.) 

These  Readers  are  not  dry  compilations  from  other  books,  but 
comprise  vivid  descriptions  of  the  author's  personal  observations. 


Copyright,  1902,  by 
FRANK  G.  CARPENTER. 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London. 


carpenter's  EUROPE 

E-P      11 


OFTHE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 
^LfFOP^ 


PREFACE 


This  book  aims  to  give  the  children  a  plain  and  simple  de- 
scription of  the  countries  of  Europe  as  they  are  to-day.  The 
method  is  by  taking  the  little  ones  on  a  personally  conducted  tour 
over  the  continent.  It  is  the  children  themselves  who  cross  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  steam  over  the  Baltic  and  the  Mediterranean 
seas  and  down  the  historic  Rhine  and  the  Danube.  It  is  they 
who  climb  the  Alps  and  stand  on  the  North  Cape  watching  the 
sun  shine  at  midnight.  It  is  they  who  go  from  city  to  city,  from 
farm  to  farm,  and  factory  to  factory,  seeing  how  the  various 
peoples  live  and  what  they  are  doing  in  the  work  of  the  world. 
It  is  they  who  are  admitted  to  the  palaces,  parliaments,  and 
public  offices  where  they  learn  how  each  nation  is  governed  and 
something  as  to  its  civilization,  commerce,  and  trade. 

It  is  not  intended  that  these  travels  should  take  the  place  of  the 
school  geographies,  but  that  they  should  be  used  with  such  books 
as  supplementary  reading.  As  in  the  volumes  describing  similar 
tours  in  North  America,  South  America,  and  Asia,  the  text-books 
on  geography  may  be  regarded  as  the  skeleton  and  this  reader  as 
the  flesh  and  blood  which  will  clothe  the  dry  bones  and  make 
the  countries  a  living  whole  in  the  minds  of  the  pupils. 

A  glance  at  the  table  of  contents  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
scope  and  character  of  the  work.  The  children,  having  crossed 
the  Atlantic  on  one  of  the  big  ocean  greyhounds,  begin  their  tour 
in  the  United  Kingdom.  Landing  at  Queenstown,  they  explore 
Ireland,  visiting  Cork,  Killarney,  Limerick,  and  Galway.  They 
cross  the  bog  lands  and  plains  to  Dublin,  and  thence  go  to  the 
Giant's  Causeway  and  Belfast,  where  they  learn  how  linen  is  made. 
From  Belfast,  they  sail  to  Glasgow,  and  after  spending  a  while  in 
the  Lowlands  or  Industrial  Scotland  go  to  Edinburgh  by  the 
Trossachs.  They  make  a  hunting  trip  to  the  Highlands,  and  visit 
the  homes  of  Robert  Burns  and  Walter  Scott  before  crossing  the 
border  to  England. 

In  England  they  go  through  the  country  districts  to  see  how  the 

5 
rk4  rkt\n  s 


6  PREFACE. 

farmers  live,  and  also  visit  the  great  factories  which  long  gave  that 
country  its  industrial  supremacy,  and  then,  after  seeing  the  other 
great  cities,  take  train  for  London.  Here  one  chapter  is  devoted 
to  the  metropolis  as  the  commercial  center  of  the  world,  and 
another  to  describing  the  visits  of  the  little  ones  to  the  palaces 
and  parliament  and  learning  how  England  is  governed. 

Crossing  the  Channel  from  Dover  to  Calais,  France  is  explored 
in  the  same  way,  and  then  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands.  Silk 
and  pottery  have  especial  mention  in  France,  and  lace  in  Belgium. 
In  Holland  the  little  ones  see  the  windmills,  dikes,  and  canals; 
they  study  the  Dutch  as  an  industrial  nation,  and  among  other 
things  investigate  the  diamond-cutting  establishments  for  which 
they  are  famous. 

Leaving  Holland,  the  children  travel  among  the  Danes  and  then 
among  the  Swedes,  the  Norwegians  and  Germans.  Several  chap- 
ters are  devoted  to  the  German  Empire,  the  last  describing  a 
trip  up  the  Rhine  to  Switzerland  and  the  Alps.  xAfter  this  there 
is  a  long  journey  down  the  Danube,  through  Austria,  Hungary, 
and  the  out  of  the  way  lands  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  to  the 
Black  Sea,  where  a  ship  is  at  hand  to  take  the  young  travelers  to 
Russia.  They  land  at  Odessa  and  go  northward  to  St.  Petersburg, 
traveling  extensively  in  Russia  in  Europe.  They  end  this  part 
of  their  journey,  after  a  sail  down  the  Volga,  in  the  oil  lands  of 
the  Caspian  Sea,  and  then  make  their  way  west,  via  the  Caucasus, 
the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Bosporus,  to  see  something  of  the  Turks. 

From  Constantinople  they  sail  for  Athens  and  explore  Greece. 
They  travel  over  Italy,  visiting  Venice,  Milan,  Florence,  Genoa, 
and  Rome  ;  and  then  go  to  Naples,  where  they  climb  Mount  Vesu- 
vius and  learn  about  volcanoes.  They  next  cross  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  Spain,  and  from  there  go  north  to  Portugal,  and  home 
by  way  of  London. 

A  large  part  of  the  book  is  based  upon  the  observations  of  the 
author  in  the  countries  described,  and  great  care  has  been  taken 
to  make  every  part  of  it  as  accurate  and  as  up  to  date  as  possible. 
The  territory,  however,  is  so  vast  and  so  varied  that  only  the 
most  important  places  and  things  can  be  mentioned,  the  subjects 
being  chosen  with  due  regard  to  child  interest  and,  at  the  same 
time,  instruction. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Across  the  Atlantic  to  Europe 9 

II.    Southern  Ireland 15 

III.  Central  and  Northern  Ireland     .        .        .        .        .      25 

IV.  Glasgow  and  the  Clyde 32 

V.  The  Scottish  Highlands  —  Edinburgh  .        .        .        .40 

VI.    Rural  England 48 

VII.    Manufacturing  England 55" 

VIII.  London  —  The  Commercial  Center  of  the  World       .      66 

IX.  How  England  is  governed  —  A  Visit  to  Parliament  .      76 

X.    Rural  France ,85 

XI.  Commercial  and  Manufacturing  France        ...      95 

XII.  Paris — The  Most  Beautiful  City  of  the  World        .     106 

XIII.  How  France  is  governed 117 

XIV.  Belgium  —  The  Busiest  Workshop  of  Europe       .        .125 
XV.  A  Country  below  the  Sea       .        ...        .        .        -133 

XVI.  In  the  Dutch  Cities — Amsterdam,  Rotterdam,  and 

The  Hague 144 

XVII.    The  Land  of  the  Danes 156 

XVIII.  Where  the  Sun  shines  at  Midnight      .        .        .        .163 

XIX.  Travels  in  Norway  and  Sweden     .        .  "      .        .        .176 

XX.  In  the  German  Empire     .        .        .        .        .        .        .     186 

XXI.    The  Seaports  of  Germany 195 

XXII.    Berlin 203 

XXIII.  The  Emperor  —  How  Germany  is  governed  .        .        .    215 

XXIV.  Rural  and  Manufacturing  Germany      .        .        .        .    223 
XXV.    Up  the  Rhine  to  Switzerland 234 

7 


8 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXVI.    Switzerland  —  The  Alps 249 

XXVII.  The  Swiss  People  and  how  they  are  Governed       .    260 

XXVIII.  The  Upper  Danube  —  From  Ulm  to  Vienna        .        .271 

XXIX.  In  the  Capital  of  Austria-Hungary    .        .        .        .    280 

XXX.    Hungary  and  the  Hungarians 293 

XXXI.  On  the  Lower  Danube  from  Budapest  to  the  Black 

Sea 301 

XXXII.  In  Odessa  —  General  View  of  ^.ussia         .        .        .311 

XXXIII.  The  Russian  Peasants  —  A  Nation  of  Villages         .    320 

XXXIV.  In  St.  Petersburg    .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .330 

XXXV.  Moscow  —  Commercial  and  Manufacturing  Russia    .    340 

XXX V^I.  Down  the  Volga  to  the  Caspian  Sea          .        .        .351 

XXXVII.    In  Constantinople 361 

XXXVHI.  Among  the  Mohammedans      .        .        .   ^    .        .        .371 

XXXIX.    In  Modern  Greece '    .        .381 

XL.    Venice '  .        .        .    392 

XLI.  Northern  Italy       .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .    402 

XLII.    Rome,  the  Capital  of  Italy 411 

XLIII.    Naples  and  Mount  Vesuvius 417 

XLIV.    Rural  Spain 428 

XLV.    In  the  Cities  of  Spain 436 

XLVI.    The  Kingdom  of  Portugal 445 

Index .       .       .453 


LIST   OF   MAPS 


Europe  .  •  .  Frontispiece 
British  Isles.        .       .        .51 

France 103 

Netherlands  and  Belgium  .  134 
Scandinavia  .  .  .  .157 
German  Empire    '.       .       •194 


Switzerland  . 

.    249 

Austria-Hungary  . 

.    292 

Russia     . 

.    310 

Turkey  and  Greece 

.    382 

Italy 

.    406 

Spain  and  Portugal 

,    446 

TRAVELS  THROUGH  EUROPE. 


>>»{c 


I.  ACROSS  THE  ATLANTIC  TO  EUROPE. 

IN  this  little  book  we  are  to  travel  together  all  over  the 
grand  division  of  Europe.  Every  one  who  has  eyes  to 
read  can  make  the  tour  if  he  will  forget,  for  the  time,  that 
he  is  in  America,  and  imagine  himself  to  be  one  of  our 
party.  We  shall  cross  the  Atlantic  on  a  big  ocean  steamer 
and  travel  slowly  from  country  to  country  and  from  place 
to  place,  on  cars  and  in  ships,  in  carriages  and  on  horse- 
back, on  donkeys  and  on  foot,  now  climbing  through  the 
snows  of  the  mighty  Alps,  now  sailing  by  the  castles  on 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube ;  now  standing  on  the  North 
Cape  watching  the  sun  shine  at  midnight  over  the  cold 
Arctic  Sea,  and  now  crawHng  up  to  the  hot  crater  of  Vesu- 
vius from  the  orange  and  lemon  groves  of  southern  Italy. 
We  shall  see  the  natural  wonders  of  all  the  great  countries  ; 
and  shall  visit  the  many  curious  peoples  of  Europe  in  their 
cities,  on  their  farms,  and  in  their  factories,  seeing  with  our 
own  eyes  just  who  they  are,  how  they  live,  and  what  they 
are  doing  in  the  work  of  the  world. 

This  is  a  big  undertaking.  Europe,  which  is  to  be  our 
imaginary  home  for  months  to  come,  is  the  most  important 
of  the  grand  divisions,  although  it  is  by  no  means  the 
largest ;  indeed,  it  is  smaller  than  any  other  grand  division 

9 


iO         ACROSS  THE  ATLANTIC  TO  EUROPE. 

except  Australia.  Nevertheless,  it  has  more  people  in  pro- 
portion to  its  area  than  any  other.  It  contains  one  fourth 
of  all  the  people  on  the  globe;  and  these  people  have  a 
greater  commerce,  live  better  and  are  more  learned,  and 
in  short  have  risen  to  a  much  higher  degree  of  civilization, 
than  the  inhabitants  of  the  other  divisions. 

This  has  happened  largely  on  account  of  the  situation  and 
character  of  Europe  itself,  and  also  because  of  the  strength 
of  its  inhabitants.  The  people  are  especially  interesting 
to  us  because  our  ancestors  came  from  Europe,  and  we 
are  all  of  the  same  race  family.  Indeed,  we  are  going  to 
see  the  home  of  our  forefathers,  and  to  travel  among  those 
who  are  our  first  cousins,  so  to  speak. 

The  Europeans  are  chiefly  of  the  Caucasian  race,  a  race 
which  is  supposed^  to  have  come  from  time  to  time  in 
savage  hordes  from  its  home  in  Asia  and  to  have  settled 
iti  Europe,  forming  there  the  three  great  race  families 
which -make  up  nine  tenths  of  the  population  of  that  conti- 
nent. The  first  is  the  Teutonic  people,  with  whom  we  are 
most  closely  related.  They  are  the  English,  the  Germans, 
the  Danes,  the  Dutch,  and  the  Scandinavians;  we  shall 
find  them  in  the  northwest,  along  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube,  and  in  the  British  Isles.  Farther  south,  about 
the  Mediterranean  and  in  France,  we  shall  travel  among  the 
second  branch  or  the  Greco-Latin  race,  composed  of  the 
French,  the  Spaniards,  the  Portuguese,  the  Italians,  and 
the  Greeks.  And  farther  east,  populating  almost  all  east- 
ern Europe,  we  shall  find  the  Slavonic  race,  composed 
of  Russians,  Bulgarians,  Servians,  Bohemians,  and  Poles ; 
the  people  of  this  race  are  rough,  but  they  are  among  the 
strongest  of  Europe. 

In  addition  to  the  Caucasians,  Europe  has  a  few  people 
of  the  Mongolian  or  yellow  race,  such  as  the  Finns  in  the 


ACROSS  THE   ATLANTIC  TO   EUROPE.  II 

icy  lands  of  the  far  north,  the  Magyars  of  Hungary,  the 
almond-eyed  Tartars  along  the  Volga,  and  the  Moham- 
medan Turks  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula  and  south  of  the 
Black  Sea.  The  Mongolians,  however,  are  here  of  minor 
importance.  The  great  race  of  Europe  and  the  great  race 
of  the  world  of  to-day  is  the  Caucasian.  It  is  our  race, 
the  race  which  has  done  most  of  the  work  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  which  promises  to  control  the  whole  world  in 
the  future. 

But  it  is  not  due  to  the  people  alone  that  Europe  has 
become  the  richest  and  most  civilized  of  all  the  grand 
divisions.  If  a  merchant  has  a  great  trade,  if  a  manu- 
facturer builds  up  a  large  business,  or  a  student  becomes 
well  educated,  you  will  find  upon  inquiry  that  his  surround- 
ings have  had  much  to  do  with  his  success.  A  store  in  a 
desert  would  have  but  few  customers,  a  factory,  in  a  nest 
in  the  mountains  could  never  get  its  goods  to  the  people, 
and  a  man  who  grew  up  on  a  desert  island,  without  a  chance 
to  see  and  learn  from  other  men,  could  never  become 
civilized. 

Europe  is  so  situated  with  reference  to  other  lands  that 
it  affords  exceptional  opportunities  for  its  people  to  manu- 
facture and  do  business  with  their  neighbors  of  the  other 
continents.  It  is  the  most  central  of  all  the  habitable  land 
divisions  in  the  world,  and  it  has  such  an  enormous  coast 
line,  with  many  peninsulas  and  great  inland  seas,  that  its 
people  have  water  highways  which  connect  them  with  one 
another  and  with  all  parts  of  the  world. 

More  than  this,  Europe  is  so  cut  up  by  navigable  rivers, 
such  as  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  the  Danube,  and  the  Volga, 
that  it  is  easy  to  go  by  water  from  any  one  part  of  it  to 
almost  all  the  others.  Much  of  the  land  is  flat  and  the 
mountain  ranges  have  many  passes,  so  that  railroads  could 


12         ACROSS  THE  ATLANTIC  TO  EUROPE. 

be  built  very  cheaply,  and  now  one  can  travel  to  all  parts  of 
it  by  cars. 

Europe  has  also  much  excellent  soil,  and  there  are  no 
vast  wastes  in  it,  like  parts  of  our  Rocky  Mountain  plateau, 
the  Sahara  in  Africa,  the  desert  highlands  in  Asia,  and  the 
mighty  range  of  the  Andes  in  South  America.  It  has  an 
excellent  climate,  so  that  its  people  can  work  all  the  year 
round ;  and  its  mountains  are  so  situated  with  respect  to  the 
winds  that  they  give  it  an  even  rainfall,  and  furnish  many 
small  streams  which  water  the  land. 

There  are,  besides,  vast  mineral  regions  in  which  are 
abundant  stores  of  iron,  coal,  zinc,  copper,  and  lead.  The 
coal  and  iron  are  so  situated  that  things  to  sell  can  be 
made  very  cheaply,  and  this,  with  the  abundant  and  cheap 
transportation,  has  made  the  Europeans  a  great  manufac- 
turing people.  In  a  word,  they  have  so  many  natural  re- 
sources, and  their  situation  is  such,  that  they  could  hardly 
help  reaching  a  high  state  of  civilization  and  power. 

But  we  shall  see  this  much  better  as  we  go  on  with  our 
travel.     Our  journey  is  to  be  such  a  long  one,  that  we  have 

little  time  to  waste  at 
the  start.  We  therefore 
take  a  train  at  once  for 
New   York,    where    we 


get  a  steamer  for  the 
United  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain    and   Ire- 

An  Ocean  Steamer.  ^^'^^^  ^l^^re  our  tour  is 

to  begin. 

Our  ship  is  one  of  the  greyhounds  of  the  Atlantic.     It 

is  an  immense  vessel,  longer  than  a  city  block,  and  so 

wide  that  it  would  fill  a  broad  street  from  one  side  to  the 

other.     It  has  many  stories,  which  are  crowded  with  pas- 


ACROSS  THE  ATLANTIC  TO  EUROPE. 


13 


sengers  and  packed  with  goods  bound  from  New  York  to 
Great  Britain.  It  has  hundreds  of  Uttle  bedrooms  or  cabins, 
and  big  parlors  with  pianos,  easy  chairs,  and  great  sofas. 
It  has  mighty  steam  engines,  which  move  it  along  by 
means  of  great  screws  at  the  stern,  which  turn  around  so 
rapidly  in  the  water  outside  that  its  speed  is  equal  to  that 


big  parlors  with  pianos,  easy  chairs,  and  great  sofas." 


of  a  fast  railroad  train.  We  ask  as  to  the  length  of  the 
voyage,  and  the  captain  tells  us  we  shall  cross  the  Atlantic 
in  less  than  six  days. 

We  say  good-by  to  our  friends  at  the  wharf  and  wave 
our  handkerchiefs  from  the  deck  as  we  steam  out  into  the 
river.  The  ship  takes  us  down  the  Hudson  past  the  tall 
buildings  of  lower  New  York.     We  go  by  the  gigantic 


14  ACROSS  THE  ATLANTIC  TO  EUROPE. 

Statue  of  "  Liberty  Enlightening  the  World,"  coast  along 
Staten  Island  and  past  Sandy  Hook,  where  we  leave 
our  pilot,  and  then  sail  on  out  into  the  broad  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

A  day  or  so  later,  we  are  beyond  the  coast  of  the  United 
States,  and  far  out  at  sea.  We  move  on  to  the  northeast, 
and  the  fog  horn  almost  deafens  us  as  we  steam  through 
the  mist  which,  formed  by  the  meeting  of  the  cold  cur- 
rent of  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  the  warm  waters  of  the 
Gulf  Stream,  always  hangs  over  the  Banks  of  Newfound- 
land. It  is  now  pitch  dark  at  night,  and  the  water  is  so 
rough  that  the  fog  horn  which  sounds  every  few  minutes 
fills  us  with  terror.  We  remember  that  we  are  on  the 
greatest  of  all  ocean  highways,  upon  which  hundreds  of 
steamers  are  always  moving  back  and  forth,  to  and  from 
Europe,-  and  that  we  are  also  on  the  vast  fishing  banks, 
where  hundreds  of  smaller  vessels  are  taking  in  cod.  We 
tremble  when  we  think  that  we  might  easily  run  down  a 
fishing  smack,  and  kill  the  people  within  it;  or  be  lost  our- 
selves by  crashing  into  one  of  the  big  ocean  steamers  com- 
ing from  England. 

By  morning,  however,  we  have  passed  out  of  the  fog, 
and  as  we  walk  the  deck,  we  are  far  out  of  sight  of  land, 
on  the  billowy  sea.  The  wind  is  fresh,  the  sun  is  dancing 
upon  the  waves,  making  them  sparkle  with  thousands  of 
diamonds,  and  turning  the  whitecaps  to  silver.  Every  now 
and  then  we  rush  from  one  side  of  the  deck  to  the  other, 
to  watch  through  our  glasses  the  smoke  of  a  steamer  away 
off  to  the  right  or  the  left.  Now  we  see  a  whale  spout, 
and  now  narrowly  escape  running  into  a  great  iceberg 
which  is  floating  towards  the  Equator,  on  its  way  from  the 
polar  regions. 

As  we  steam  onward,  the  water  grows  smoother,  for  the 


SOUTHERN  IRELAND. 


IS 


weather  is  fine.     With  shovel  board,  deck  quoits,  and  other 
games,  the  time  passes  quickly ;  and  on  the  sixth  day  after 


Deck  Quoits. 

leaving-  New  York,  the  green,  rocky  shores  of  Ireland  come 
into  view,  and  we  soon  find  ourselves  at  anchor  in  the 
harbor  of  Queenstown,  with  all  Europe  lying  before  us. 


»«ic 


.     II.     SOUTHERN    IRELAND., 

WE  take  our  waterproofs  and  umbrellas  wit?i  us  as  we 
step  from  the  steamer.  The  sun  is  shining,  but  Ire- 
land is  one  of  the  rainiest  countries  of  Europe,  and  no  one 
knows  when  the  weather  will  change.     All  parts  of  the 


l6  IRELAND. 

British  Isles  are  noted  for  their  dampness,  and  Ireland  so 
much  so  that  the  people  of  Ireland  have  this  saying,  "  In 
England,  it  rains  all  day ;  in  Scotland,  it  rains  all  night ; 
but  in  Ireland,  it  rains  both  day  and  night." 

It  is  by  no  means  so  bad  as  this,  but  the  air  is  wonder- 
fully moist,  for  the  country  lies  right  in  the  track  of  the 
water-laden  winds  from  the  ocean,  the  rains  being  precipi- 
tated when  they  strike  the  mountains  which  run  around 
the  greater  part  of  the  coast. 

It  is  'this  moisture  that  makes  Ireland  so  green.  The 
foliage  looked  as  fresh  as  Ohio  in  June,  when  we  first  saw 
it  from  the  deck  of  the  steamer.  There  are  green  trees 
and  beautiful  gardens  about  the  white  houses  of  Queens- 
town,  which  rise  in  terraces  up  the  hills  from  the  harbor, 
and  we  do  not  wonder  that  the  country  is  called  The 
Emerald  Isle. 

Ireland  is  indeed  beautiful.  It  is  almost  as  large  as 
Maine,  and  somewhat  like  it  in  character.  It  is  a  mass  of 
mountains  and  rolling  land,  with  a  low  central  plain  slop- 
ing down  to  the  east,  and  with  many  lakes,  swamps,  and 
morasses.  It  has  much  fine  farming  land,  and  ought  to 
be  one  of  the  richest  and  happiest  lands  of  the  globe. 
What  it  really  is  we  shall  learn  in  cur  travels. 

But  see  that  crowd  of  rosy-cheeked,  poorly-clad  men 
who  stand  on  the  dock,  cracking  their  whips,  awaiting 
our  landing.  They  are  the  jaunting  car  drivers,  the  jolly 
cabmen  of  Ireland.  Their  faces  are  full  of  good  nature, 
and  each  has  a  good  word  for  himself  as  he  asks  us  in 
his  queer  brogue,  "if  we  will  be  having  a  ride  through  the 
town,  behind  his  illigant  steed,  in  a  car." 

We  choose  our  men,  and  bargain  with  them  to  take  us 
to  the  city  of  Cork,  which  is  twelve  miles  away  (see  map, 
p.  51).   We  then  get  on  the  "  cars."    Each  is  a  two-wheeled 


SOUTHERN  IRELAND. 


17 


affair,  with  seats  high  up  over  the  wheels  and  steps  below 
on  which  our  feet  rest.  We  sit  back  to  back  in  couples, 
facing  the  fields  as  we  ride,  and  at  first  hold  on  tightly  at 
every  turn  of  a  comer.  The  load  must  be  carefully  bal- 
anced, and  when  there  are  less  than  two  or  four  passengers 
the  driver  sits  at  the  side  instead  of  in  front. 


Jaunting  Car. 

We  soon  get  used  to  the  cars  and  then  the  ride  is  de- 
lightful. The  road  is  smooth,  and  much  of  our  way  is 
under  widespreading  trees.  We  ride  through  fields  di- 
vided by  green  hedges  or  stone  walls  covered  with  earth 
upon  which  the  grass  grows.  The  land  is  beautifully  roll- 
ing. There  is  a  meadow  in  which  fat  cattle  are  grazing, 
and  there  is  a  large  flock  of  sheep  on  the  other  side  of 
that  hedge.  Here  the  men  are  cutting  the  grass  down 
with  scythes,  and  there  is  a  field  where  they  are  hoeing 
the  wide  rows  of  dark  green  stalks,  which  lie  like  great 


1 8  IRELAND. 

ribbons  upon  the  black  soil.  Those  are  potatoes,  a  crop 
very  important  to  Ireland,  for  it  forms  the  chief  food  of 
the  people. 

Where  are  the  barns .''     We  see  none  to  speak  of.     Much 
of  the  grass  is  fed  green,  or  put  up  in  stacks,  after  being 


Digging  Potatoes. 

made  into  hay..  Now  we  pass  a  farm  cottage  covered  with 
vines,  with  a  garden  behind  it,  and  a  hedge  of  blood  red 
fuchsias  shutting  it  off  from  the  road.  The  house  is  quite 
small,  but  it  seems  to  be  comfortable.  We  are  told  it  is 
the  home  of  a  well-to-do  tenant  farmer. 

We  next  go  by  a  park  of  widespreading  oaks  and  tall 
elms,  with  an  ivy-grown  porter's  lodge  at  the  side  of  the 
gate  which  leads  into  it.  Beyond,  a  great  mansion  shines 
out  through  the  trees,  and  our  jaunting  car  driver  tells  us 
that  it  belongs  to  a  rich  lord  whose  home  is  in  England 


SOUTHERN   IRELAND. 


19 


He  says  that  the  lord  owns  an  estate  here  of  thousands  of 
acres,  which  he  rents  out  in  tracts  to  the  people.  Farther 
on  we  pass  another  estate  and  then  another,  both  of  the 
owners  living  out  of  the  country. 

This  is  the  condition  of  a  large  part  of  Ireland.  The 
land  is  divided  up  into  estates,  some  of  which  contain  as 
many  as  one  hundred  thousand  acres.  In  several  cases 
one  man  owns  a  whole  town,  all  the  houses  and  land  belong- 
ing to  him  being  rented  out  by  his  agents  to  the  people. 
After  the  rents  are  collected  they  are  sent  off  to  Eng- 
land, so  that  the  money  is  all  spent  outside  Ireland  and  the 
country  is  exceedingly  poor.  The  proceeds  of  the  large 
farms  go  the  same  way,  and  as 
the  rents  are  high  there  are 
many,  many  poor  in  Ireland. 
There  are  more  than  sixty  thou- 
sand farms  of  less  than  one 
acre,  and  more  than  that  num- 
ber which  are  between  one  and 
five  acres  in  size. 

Upon  such  a  small  piece  of 
land  a  man  cannot  possibly  make 
a  living  for  his  family,  especially 
when  he  has  to  pay  rent.  We 
see  the  poor  huts  of  the  tenants 
everywhere  as  we  go  on  with 
our  journey.  There  is  one  now 
just  off  the  road  and  we  can 
stop  and  call  on  the  owner.  I 
mean  that  hut  where  the  barefooted  woman  stands  in  the 
doorway  knitting,  with  the  child  sitting  beside  her.  The 
Irish  are  very  hospitable,  and  she  will  be  glad  to  show  us 
her  home. 


We  see  the  poor  huts  of  the 
tenants." 


CARP.   EUROPE  —  2 


20  IRELAND. 

The  house  is  not  more  than  fifteen  feet  square.  It  is 
built  of  stones  and  earth  and  roofed  with  straw  thatch. 
The  roof  extends  down  to  the  top  of  the  door,  and  the 
house  is  so  low  that  we  stoop  to  go  in.  The  floor  is  the 
ground,  and  the  only  windows  are  little  holes  in  the  walls, 
the  most  of  the  light  coming  in  through  the  door.  The 
roof  is  so  old  and  moss-grown  that  the  water  drips  through 
when  it  rains.  Look  up  at  that  corner  and  you  can  see 
the  sky  through  the  crack ! 

There  is  little  furniture  in  the  house.  That  pile  of  straw 
with  the  sacking  thrown  over  it  is  the  bed  of  the  family, 
where  they  all  lie  down  and  sleep  in  the  clothes  they  wear 
in  the  daytime.  The  rest  of  the  furniture  consists  of 
these  three  chairs  and  a  table,  while  that  black  hole  at  the 
back  cut  out  of  the  chimney  is  the  fireplace  where  all  the 
cooking  is  done. 

See,  there  is  a  chicken  under  the  table  !  Look  out  for 
that  pig  over  there  in  the  corner !  He  is  looking  longingly 
at  the  door,  and  if  he  should  run  between  your  legs  he 
might  throw  you  down.  He  is  an  important  member  of 
the  family,  and  in  many  cases  he  is  about  the  only  source 
of  income.  The  children  love  him,  and  their  parents  often 
refer  to  him  as  ''the  little  fellow  that  pays  the  rent."     ' 

Notice  the  children.  How  ragged  they  are !  They  are 
bareheaded  and  barefooted,  but  their  cheeks  are  rosy  with 
health.  Dinner  is  on  the  table,  and  they  stand  about  ready 
to  eat.  The  meal  consists  of  a  bowl  of  potatoes  and  a  dish 
of  stirabout,  a  mush  made  of  corn  meal,  which,  with  pota- 
toes, forms  the  chief  food  of  the  poor  tenant  class.  They 
seldom  have  meat,  and  they  sell  their  chickens  and  eggs 
to  get  money  for  clothes. 

The  potato  is  the  bread  food  of  the  Irish.  The  crop  is 
so  important  that  when  it  fails  there  is  always  a  famine. 


SOUTHERN   IRELAND. 


21 


In  1846  a  blight  destroyed  the  potatoes,  and  during  that 
year  more  than  one  million  of  the  poor  died  of  starvation, 
while  another  million  Iteft  Ireland  for  the  United  States. 

On  the  larger  farms  the  tenants  are  more  prosperous. 
We  see  better  houses  as  we  come  near  Cork,  and  in  the 
best  parts  of  the  city  we  find  many  fine  buildings.  Cork 
is  the  metropolis  of  southern  Ireland.     It  is  about  as  large 


,-'^- •■■-'■>' 

V^  --^  \'.- 

1 

liiiD... 

ii»    ^ 

0 

^^  •? 

i 

^ 

ff9 

mA 

t»  ''                                                                             «||||»M| 

.M^P 

mpM^ 

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|v.;r 

■  ><-^;:3jifp^ 

mm 

/y^£      W?  : 

j^ 

"    -_- 

.  ,   t^ '■-■•*■■■■;. 

"On  the  larger  farms  the  tenants  are  more  prosperous." 

as  Columbus,  Ohio.  It  grows  but  little  although  it  is  a 
thriving  port,  especially  noted  for  its  shipments  of  meat, 
live  stock,  and  butter.  The  cattle  of  southern  Ireland 
make  excellent  beef,  and  Cork  butter  brings  high  prices  in 
the  markets  of  England.  It  is  made  without  salt,  and  it  is 
so  sweet  that  we  eat  it  like  cheese. 

We  walk  down  St.  Patrick  Street,  stopping  a  moment 
at  the  great  cathedral  and  going  into  several  fine  stores  to 


22 


IRELAND. 


We  walk  down  St.  Patrick  Street.' 


see  how  the  Irish  do  business.  We  stroll  along  with  many 
well-dressed  people  under  the  widespreading  elms  of  the 
Mardyke,  the  chief  promenade  of  the  city,  and  later  on 
take  jaunting  cars  for  the  Groves  of  Blarney  and  Blarney 
Castle. 

These  are  among  the  chief  sights  of  southern  Ireland. 
Blarney  Castle  was  once  the  residence  of  the  Earls  of 
Clancarty.  It  has  been  besieged  many  times,  and  among 
its  besiegers  were  Oliver  Cromwell  and  King  William  III. 
King  William  destroyed  it  after  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne, 
so  that  now  all  that  is  left  is  the  donjon  tower.  This  is  in 
good  preservation,  although  the  ivy  has  grown  into  the 
crevices,  and  has  twined  itself  about  the  top. 


SOUTHERN  IRELAND. 


23 


We  climb  step  by  step  up  the  inside  of  the  tower,  and 
then,  with  our  friends  holding  us  by  the  feet,  hang  down  out 
of  the  windows,  and  try  our  best  to  kiss  the  famed  Blarney 
Stone,  set  into  the  wall  below.  This  our  guide  urges  us 
by  all  means  to  do,  saying  that  the  kiss  will  give  us  such 
wheedling  tongues  that  no  one  can  resist  us  thereafter. 

**  Like  a  magnet  its  influence  such  is, 
Attraction  it  gives  all  it  touches ; 
If  you  kiss  it,  they  say,  from  that  blessed  day 
You  may  kiss  whom  you  please  wid  your  Blarney." 

And  also :  — 

"  There  is  a  stone 
That  whoever  kisses, 
Oh  !  he  never  misses 
To  grow  eloquent, 
Don't  hope  to  hinder  him, 
Or  to  bewilder  him, 
Sure  he's  a  pilgrim 
From  the  Blarney  Stone." 


Blarney  Castle. 


24 


IRELAND. 


After  leaving  the  castle  we  wander  awhile  through  the 
Groves  of  Blarney,  which  are  noted  for  their  beauty  and 
their  flowers,  and  then  take  the  railroad  through  southern 
Ireland  to  Bantry  Bay,  whence  we  go  by  coach  over  the 
mountains  to  Killarney.  Our  ride  is  through  one  of  the 
poorest  parts  of  the  country.     The  mountains  are  covered 


" — the  beautiful  lakes  of  Killarney." 

with  verdure,  but  they  are  rocky  and  wild.  There  is  little 
cultivated  land,  and  the  cabins  of  the  poor  are  squalid  and 
mean. 

We  are  followed  everywhere  by  beggars.  Bareheaded, 
barelegged  girls  and  boys,  ranging  in  age  from  four  to 
sixteen,  spring  out  of  the  bushes  and  run  after  our  stage, 
holding  out  their  hands  and  saying,  "  Penny  if  you  plaze, 
sor;  penny  if  you  plaze,  miss.'*"  They  keep  up  this  cry 
for  miles,  running  side  by  side  with  the  stage,  as  fast  as 


CENTRAL  AND  NORTHERN   IRELAND. 


25 


the  horses.  Some  of  the  boys  run  in  advance  of  us  and 
stand  on  their  heads,  balancing  their  bare  legs  in  the  air 
until  the  stage  comes  up,  when  they  drop  to  their  feet  and 
hold  out  their  hands  for  money.  If  we  throw  down  a 
penny  the  little  ones  scramble  and  fight  for  it  among  them- 
selves, and  then  dart  on  to  beg  for  more. '  Many  of  the 
children  are  almost  naked,  and  none  have  hats  or  shoes. 
We  find  more  beggars  about  the  beautiful  lakes  of  Killar- 
ney,  and  they  besiege  us  in  every  part  of  southern  Ireland, 
and  even  in  DubUn  itself. 


>t^c 


III.     CENTRAL   AND   NORTHERN    IRELAND. 

WE  take  the  cars  at  Killarney  and  go  north  to  Limer- 
ick and  Galway,  important  little  cities  with  fine 
harbors  on  the  west  coast,  and  then  cross  Ireland  to  Dub- 
lin, passing  over  the  great  cen- 
tral plain.  Much  of  our  journey 
is  through  vast  swamps  filled 
with  peat.  These  are  the  bog 
lands  of  Ireland.  They  cover  a 
space  about  as  large  as  Con- 
necticut, or  almost  one  seventh 
of  the  whole  country. 

Peat  is  a  spongy,  vegetable 
matter  which  rnight  be  called 
half -grown  coal.  In  some  places 
the  peat  is  almost  as  hard  as 
coal,  and  in  others  soft  with 
many  little  fibers  matted  together.  In  some  of  the  swamps 
the  peat  beds  are  thin,  and  in  others  they  are  thirty  or 
forty  feet  thick. 


"We  see  women  carrying 
great  baskets  of  it." 


26 


IRELAND. 


Peat  is  the  chief  fuel  of  the  Irish.  We  see  women  car- 
rying great  baskets  of  it  home  on  their  backs,  and  as  we 
cross  a  bog  we  see  men  getting  the  peat  out.  They  are 
cutting  the  soft,  wet  stuff  up  into  bricks,  and  laying  them 
out  to  dry  in  the  sun.  Later  they  will  carry  them  off  to 
the  cabins  for  their  winter  fuel,  or  send  them  to  the  towns 
and  cities  for  sale. 


A  Peat  Bed. 


Peat  makes  a  very  hot  fire,  although  it  does  not  blaze 
up  like  wood.  It  smolders  away,  brightening  into  a  glow 
under  a  draft,  and  giving  out  a  pale  blue  smoke.  In  some 
places  logs  and  branches  of  fir  and  oak  are  found  in  the 
peat  These  are  very  inflammable,  and  they  burn  so 
brightly  that  they  have  the  place  that  pine  knots  had  in 
our  pioneer  times,  and  the  peasants  sometimes  use  them 
for  candles. 


CENTRAL  AND   NORTHERN   IRELAND.  2/ 

Many  of  the  bogs  are  now  being  drained,  for  there  is 
rich  soil  under  them,  and  when  the  peat  has  been  once  cut 
away,  they  make  excellent  farms. 

Central  Ireland  is  a  land  of  fine  farms.  The  country  is 
cultivated  like  a  garden,  and  there  are  many  great  estates 
with  thousands  of  tenant  farmers.  Some  of  the  farms  are 
quite  large  and  their  tenants  apparently  live  very  well. 
The  houses  grow  better  as  we  come  nearer  Dublin,  and  as 
we  continue  our  travels  we  find  that  Ireland  has  a  large 
population  of  rich  and  well-to-do  people  as  well  as  of  poor. 

Dublin  is  a  magnificent  city.  It  is  as  large  as  Cincin- 
nati, and  it  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  cities  of  Europe. 
It  is  the  capital  of  Ireland,  being  the  home  of  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  who  is  appointed  by  the  ruler  of  the  United 
Kingdom  to  represent  the  British  government  there.  It 
is  the  chief  social  center  of  the  country.  It  has  magnifi- 
cent homes,  libraries,  and  schools,  a  famous  monument  fine 
statues,  and  other  evidences  of  culture  and  wealth. 

Dublin  is  also  noted  for  its  manufactures  and  commerce. 
It  lies  on  the  Irish  Channel,  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Liff ey,  whence  all  parts  of  the  country  can  easily  be  reached 
by  water  or  rail,  and  just  where  it  is  easiest  to  bring  in 
goods  from  England  or  to  send  them  across  to  that  country. 
It  makes  great  quantities  of  beer,  whisky,  and  porter  for 
export,  and  is  also  famous  for  weaving  a  kind  of  dress 
goods  which  is  sold  in  our  American  stores.  This  goods 
is  Irish  poplin.  It  is  of  silk  and  wool,  and  although  not  so 
fine  as  the  finest  of  silk,  it  is  almost  as  beautiful  and  will 
wear  twice  as  long. 

We  spend  some  time  in  strolling  about  through  the  city, 
visiting  the  great  stores  in  Grafton  Street,  where  we  each 
buy  some  poplin  and  handkerchiefs  of  Irish  lace  as  presents 
to  take  home  to  our  friends.     The  lace  is  wonderfully  fine. 


28 


IRELAND. 


It  is  made  by  hand,  stitch  by  stitch,  on  cushions,  by  the 
women  and  girls  in  their  cabins.  It  takes  a  long  time  to 
make  a  lace  curtain,  and  a  girl  may  be  employed  for  a 
month  on  a  single  fine  handkerchief. 

Leaving  the  stores,  we  visit  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  which 
was  built  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  then  go  to 


—  we  visit  the  Bank  of  Ireland.' 


the  castle  where  the  Lord  Lieutenant  lives.  We  next 
photograph  the  statues  of  Tom  Moore,  the  poet,  and  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  both  natives  of  Dublin,  and  then  take 
a  walk  through  the  grounds  of  Trinity  College,  meeting 
scores  of  students  in  black  caps  and  gowns,  and  remember- 
ing that  Oliver  Goldsmith,  the  poet,  and  Dean  Swift,  who 
wrote  "  Gulliver's  Travels,"  were  once  students  here. 

Later  we  rest  ourselves  in  the  great  cathedrals  of  Christ 
Church  and  Saint  Patrick,  and  then  go  out  to  Phoenix 
Park,  which  the  Irish  say  is  the  finest  pleasure  ground  of 
the  world.  It  has  large  fields  for  cricket  and  golf,  and 
miles  of  beautiful  drives  through  the  trees.  In  the  woods 
there  are  many  red  deer,  so  tame  that  they  eat  from  our 
hands  and  allow  us  to  pet  them. 

Leaving  Dublin,  we  make  a  rapid  trip  through  northern 
Ireland  to  visit  the  Giant's  Causeway  before  going  to  Bel- 
fast to  take  a  boat  for  Scotland.  We  travel  by  rail  all  day 
long,  passing  through  many  towns  and  numerous  villages. 
The  beggars  are  fewer  and  the  people  seem  more  prosper- 


CENTRAL  AND   NORTHERN  IRELAND. 


29 


ous  than  those  of  southern  Ireland.  Some  of  the  cabins 
are  roofed  with  slate,  the  farms  are  larger,  and  the  ten- 
ants more  thrifty.  We  see  many  Protestant  churches,  and 
learn  that  northern  Ireland  is  populated  by  the  descend- 
ants of  Scotchmen  who  came  across  the  Channel  in  years 
gone  by.  In  the  southern  part  of  the  country  the  most  of 
the  people  are  Catholics. 


Trinity  College. 


At  last  we  reach  Portrush,  a  town  situated  on  the 
extreme  north  coast  on  a  bold  headland.  It  is  dark  when 
we  arrive,  and  we  stay  at  the  hotel  over  night.  The 
next  morning  we  take  an  electric  car  and  ride  along 
the  coast  to  the  famed  Giant's  Causeway. 

What  a  curious  formation  it  is !  As  we  step  from  the 
cars  we  see  acres  of  huge  stone  columns  rising  out  of  the 


,  30  IRELAND. 

sea,  as  though  they  were  piles  driven  down  by  the  giants. 
They  are  so  close  together  that  we  walk  upon  them,  and 
our  guide  tells  us  there  are  forty  thousand  in  all,  but  we  do 
not  stop  to  count. 

The  columns  are  of  different  shapes  and  of  different 
height.  Some  are  triangular,  some  pentagonal,  and  others 
octagonal.  Some  rise  in  tiers  like  so  many  steps,  and 
others  are  so  arranged  that  they  look  like  the  pipes  of  an 
organ,  while  one  formation  is  like  a  great  pulpit. 

We  walk  about  on  the  stones,  sitting  down  now  and  then 
to  sketch  the  queer  natives,  or  make  photographs  of  them 
and  our  party.  We  lean  over  the  columns  which  surround 
a  great  hole  called  the  giant's  well,  and  look  down  into  the 
water ;  and  as  we  do  so  an  old  Irish  woman  hobbles  up 
and  offers  us  a  bottle  of  whisky,  telling  us  that  if  we  mix 
it  with  some  water  from  the  well  and  drink  it,  making  a 
wish  as  we  swallow,  our  wish  will  come  true  before  the 
year  closes.  We  laugh,  and  give  the  old  woman  a  penny, 
but  decline  to  tempt  the  fates  in  that  way. 

After  a  time  we  hire  a  boat  and  are  rowed  out  for  a  view 
of  the  Causeway  from  the  sea.  The  columns  extend  far 
out,  gradually  losing  themselves  in  the  water.  As  we  are 
rowed  about  our  boatman  gives  us  the  Irish  tradition  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  Causeway.  He  says  that  it  was  built  be- 
cause of  a  quarrel  between  Fin  McCoul,  the  champion 
giant  of  Ireland,  and  one  of  the  champion  giants  of 
Scotland.  The  Scotch  giant  dared  all  the  world  to  come 
anc}  fight  him.  He  had  heard  of  Fin,  and  he  sent  him  a 
message  saying  that  if  it  weren't  for  getting  wet  he  would 
cross  over  to  Ireland  and  give  him  a  drubbing.  Upon 
this  Fin  applied  to  his  king,  who  gave  him  permission  to 
build  this  great  causeway  from  Ireland  to  Scotland  in  order 
that  the  Scotch  giant  might  come  over  dry  shod  to  fight 


CENTRAL  AND   NORTHERN   IRELAND. 


31 


:.         liJii' 

'^\        ^..■, 

m 

^ 

^\mM. 

%- 

^^flU 

^-■-      '^^^ "' 

^ii^^B 

M 

1"    - 

^iHb' 

^    *   CSPm 

';,!' 

*-^t^ 

W^^L 

s 

■•  ™  - 

1 

*• — the  famed  Giant's  Causeway." 

him.  The  boastful  Scotchman  did  come,  and  Fin  gave 
him  a  whipping  and  sent  him  back  home.  After  this 
there  was  no  further  need  of  the  Causeway,  and  according 
to  the  story  it  was  again  thrown  down  into  the  sea. 

We  find  Belfast  full  of  interest.  It  is  a  beautiful  city, 
about  as  large  as  Washington,  lying  on  an  excellent  har- 
bor which  gives  it  connection  with  Scotland,  England,  and 
all  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  the  chief  of  the  Irish 
manufacturing  cities,  being  so  near  the  coal  fields  of  Scot- 
land that  it  can  get  its  fuel  for  making  steam  very  cheaply. 
We  visit  the  shipyards,  where  some  of  the  finest  of  ocean 
steamers  are  built,  and  go  through  the  vast  mills  for  weav- 
ing cottons  and  linens.  The  linen  mills  are  especially  fine, 
for  the  firm  moist  land  of  this  region  is  well  fitted  for  flax, 
and  the  Irish  farmers  understand  how  to  prepare  it  for 
cloth.     The  most  beautiful  of  tablecloths  and  napkins  are 


32  SCOTLAND. 

made  in  these  mills  ;  in  others  linen  lawns  for  dresses  and 
handkerchiefs  are  made;  and  thousands  of  the  shirt  bosoms 
worn  in  America  come  from  Belfast.  There  are  many  flax 
farms  in  the  country  near  by,  which  supply  a  part  of  the 
linen  used  in  the  great  factories  in  the  city. 

We  devote  one  of  our  mornings  to  visiting  the  largest 
linen  mill  of  the  world.  Its  buildings  cover  eight  acres, 
and  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  people  are  employed 
by  its  managers  to  turn  the  flax  into  cloth.  We  go  through 
room  after  room  filled  with  men,  women,  and  children, 
hard  at  work  making  all  kinds  of  fine  linens.  The  women 
and  children  are  barefooted,  but  they  look  healthy  and 
happy.  They  receive  very  low  wages,  although  they  work 
from  half-past  six  in  the  morning  until  six  in  the  evening, 
with  recesses  for  breakfast  and  dinner. 

Near  the  mill  we  see  bleaching  farms,  great  fields  upon 
which  the  cloth  is  spread  out  on  the  grass  in  the  sun  and 
sprinkled  until  it  grows  white.  We  learn  that  Ireland  has 
been  noted  for  its  linen  for  more  than  six  hundred  years, 
and  that  until  1805  its  linens  were  all  made  by  hand.  Now 
machinery  does  almost  everything,  although  the  very  finest 
of  the  damask  table  linens  are  still  made  on  hand  looms. 


o>K< 


IV.     GLASGOW   AND   THE   CLYDE. 

WE  have  left  Belfast  and  crossed  the  Irish  Channel 
to  Glasgow,  in  the  lowlands  of  Scotland.  These 
lowlands  are  the  most  important  part  of  the  country. 
Scotland  has  only  a  little  more  than  one  half  as  much  land 
as  England,  and  less  than  one  fourth  of  it  can  be  cultivated 
or  used  for  grass  growing.     You  can  get  some  idea  of  how 


GLASGOW  AND  THE  CLYDE.  33 

the  land  lies  if  you  will  make  your  hand  like  a  cup  and 
imagine  it  to  be  Scotland.  There  is  an  expanse  of  high- 
lands at  the  north  corresponding  to  the  upper  part  of 
your  fingers ;  there  are  uplands  at  the  south  like  the  hand 
near  the  wrist,  and  there  is  a  basin  of  lowlands,  the  district 
where  we  now  are,  represented  by  the  palm. 

The  lowland  district  contains  more  than  half  of  the 
people  in  Scotland.  It  has  all  the  large  cities  and  is  cov- 
ered with  villages.  It  is  gridironed  with  railroads  ;  it  has 
several  rivers,  and  a  canal  has  been  cut  across  it  from 
Grangemouth  to  Dumbarton.  On  the  east  is  the  Firth 
of  Forth  and  the  fine  harbor  of  Leith,  and  on  the  west  is 
the  Firth  of  Clyde  with  the  wonderful  harbor  of  Glasgow. 
The  lowlands  of  Scotland  are  so  underlaid  with  coal  and 
iron  that  they  have  become  one  of  the  chief  manufacturing 
places  of  the  globe.  There  are  hundreds  of  mines,  from 
which  millions  of  tons  of  coal  are  taken  out  every  year. 
The  country  is  dotted  with  factories  and  foundries.  Some 
towns  are  noted  for  making  cottons,  others  for  woolens, 
and  some,  like  Dundee,  are  devoted  to  linens  and  jute. 
We  find  that  Scotland  has  industries  of  almost  every  de- 
scription, including  machinery  and  hardware. 

Glasgow  reminds  us  of  Pittsburg.  We  see  its  smoke  for 
hours  before  we  come  to  it.  We  steam  amongst  ships 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  in  entering  the  Firth,  and  sail 
on  up  the  Clyde  to  the  city  through  the  chief  shipbuilding 
center  of  the  world.  The  Clyde  is  a  narrow  stream,  but 
its  banks  are  lined  with  the  skeletons  of  great  ocean  steam- 
ships, and  we  are  almost  deafened  by  the  noise  of  the 
thousands  of  hammers  upon  the  cold  steel.  The  works 
are  right  out  in  the  fields.  In  some  places  the  crops  are 
growing  about  them,  and  as  we  stand  on  the  deck  of  our 
steamer,  we  look  down  upon  cozy  farmhouses,  and   see 


34 


SCOTLAND. 


the  cattle  grazing  on  the  meadows  undisturbed  by  the  din. 
The  Clyde  grows  narrower  as  we  approach  Glasgow,  and 
as  we  sail  on  into  the  heart  of  the  city  it  is  Uke  a  canal, 
with  long  lines  of  ships  tied  to  its  banks. 

The  citizens  of  Glasgow  are  now  very  proud  of  the 
Clyde.  It  is  due  to  them  that  it  has  become  navigable 
clear  out  to  the  sea,  and  has  thus  aided  in  making  Glasgow, 


The  Clyde. 


not  only  the  manufacturing  center  of  Scotland,  but  also, 
next  to  London,  the  largest  city  of  Great  Britain  in  com- 
merce and  trade.  Glasgow  remained  a  village  long  after 
it  was  founded,  for  the  Clyde  was  so  shallow  that  no  ships 
could  come  to  it.  Much  of  the  land  upon  which  the  city 
now  stands  was  then  covered  with  marsh,  which  was  over- 
flowed at  high  tide.  Seagoing  vessels  could  come  only  to 
Greenock,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  for  a  long  time 
many  thought  that  Greenock  would  be  the  chief  town  of 


GLASGOW  AND  THE   CLYDE.  35 

the  Scottish  lowlands.  Then  the  people  of  Glasgow  deter- 
mined to  have  a  port  of  their  own.  They  began  to  deepen 
the  Clyde  and  to  wall  it  in.  They  built  docks  upon  it,  and 
about  a  half  century  before  we  declared  our  independence 
of  England,  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons  was  able  to  sail  from 
Glasgow  for  New  York.  Later  the  channel  was  deepened 
still  more,  and  now  steamers  of  three  thousand  tons  can 
come  right  into  the  heart  of  the  city,  and  men-of-war, 
three  hundred  times  as  large  as  that  sixty-ton  vessel  which 
made  the  first  voyage,  are  being  built  in  its  suburbs. 

We  are  told  that  the  Clyde  was  the  first  river  of  Europe 
to  be  navigated  regularly  by  steam  vessels.  The  little 
steamboat  Comet,  which  drew  only  four  feet  of  water, 
made  voyages  upon  it  in  18 12;  and  six  years  later  a  line 
of  steamships  was  established  to  connect  Glasgow  with 
Ireland. 

We  are  interested  to  learn  that  the  United  States  has 
had  much  to  do  with  making  Glasgow  such  a  great  city. 
As  soon  as  the  Clyde  was  deepened,  a  thriving  trade  grew 
up  between  Glasgow  and  Virginia  and  Maryland.  The 
chief  article  sold  was  tobacco,  which  was  sent  from  the 
plantations  direct  to  Glasgow,  and  from  there  distributed 
to  all  parts  of  Great  Britain.  The  business  was  profitable, 
and  many  of  the  Scotch  fortunes  of  to-day  were  founded 
upon  it.  Later  on,  the  abundant  coal  and  iron  near  by 
caused  the  building  of  all  sorts  of  factories,  and  shiploads 
of  our  cotton  were  sent  here  to  be  made  into  cloth. 

Glasgow  is  now  about  as  large  as  Philadelphia,  and  it 
is  one  of  the  most  substantial  cities  of  Europe.  It  has 
fine  buildings  of  sandstone,  granite,  and  marble  from  the 
quarries  of  Scotland,  and  its  stores,  with  their  immense 
stocks  of  goods,  are  equal  to  the  best  on  Broadway. 

The  streets  are  wide  and  well  paved,  and  crowded  with 

CARP.    EUROPE  —  3 


36 


SCOTLAND. 


people.  '  We  take  a  walk  down  Argyle  Street,  the  com- 
mercial center  of  Glasgow.  The  traffic  is  as  great  as  that 
of  lower  New  York.  We  are  jostled  by  the  crowds  on 
the  pavements,  and  have  to  ask  the  policemen  to  help  us 


"We  take  a  walk  down  Argyle  Street." 


across  through  the  jam  of  wagons,  carriages,  and  cars, 
which  are  always  moving  up  and  down  street.  It  is  almost 
as  bad  in  the  fashionable  shopping  section  of  Buchanan 
Street.  Here  costly  goods  of  all  kinds  are  displayed  in  the 
windows,  the  people  on  the  sidewalks  are  well  dressed,  and 
we  see  that  there  must  be  plenty  of  money  in  Scotland. 

But  let  us  take  a  street  car  and  ride  on  through  the 
city.  The  conductor  comes  forward  and  we  ask  him  the 
fare.  He  tells  us  it  is  only  a  ha'penny,  or  one  cent  of  our 
money,  and  we  learn  that  Glasgow  has  about  the  cheapest 
car  fares  of  the  world.     This  is  largely  because  the  city 


GLASGOW  AND   THE  CLYDE. 


37 


itself  owns  the  street  cars  and  manages  them  at  cost  for 
the  people.  It  is  the  same  with  the  ferries,  the  gas 
plant,  the  waterworks,  and  even  with  the  concert  halls; 
so  that  the  citizens  here  get  all  such  things  at  cost. 
The  town  of  Glasgow  takes  the  place  of  a  father,  so  to 
say,  in  caring  for  its  people.  The  city  government  builds 
houses  to  let  to  workingmen  at  very  low  rents ;  it  has 
lodging  houses  where  the  poor  can  stay  for  less  than  ten 


University  of  Glasgow. 

cents  a  night,  and  fine  public  baths  where  the  regular 
charge  is  four  cents  a  swim,  with  special  rates  for 
school  children.  It  has  public  washhouses  where  a 
woman  can  have  the  use  of  a  stall  with  hot  and  cold 
water  for  four  cents  an  hour,  and  where  there  are  hot 
air  ckambers  in  which  she  can  quickly  dry  her  washing 
so  as  to  take  it  home  with  her,  ready  for  ironing. 


38 


SCOTLAND. 


Glasgow  has  good  public  schools,  as  have  all  parts 
of  Scotland.  Nearly  all  the  Scotch  read  and  write, 
and  it  is  the  ambition  of  every  poor  man  to  send  his  chil- 
dren to  college.  There  are  great  universities  at  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh,  and  academies  in  many  small  cities.  We 
visit  the  University  of  Glasgow,  which  stands  on  a  hill 
high  over  the  Clyde,  and  cUmb  to  the  top  of  its  tower 


"  —  the  cemetery  rising  in  terraces." 

for  the  view.  The  tower  is  three  hundred  feet  high,  and 
we  are  far  above  the  city,  which  fills  the  valley  of  the 
Clyde  for  miles.  We  see  it  extending  on  and  on,  lined 
with  factories,  foundries,  and  shipyards,  almost  to  the  sea. 
About,  and  even  in  the  city  itself,  are  hundreds  of  tall, 
round,  red  smokestacks,  each  pouring  forth  a  volume  of 
smoke  into  the  low-hanging  clouds,  while  on  the  house 
chimneys  are  hundreds  of  queer  little  pots  about  a  foot 
long  and  six  or  eight  inches  wide.     They  look  like  mam- 


GLASGOW  AND  THE  CLYDE.  39 

moth  combs  growing  out  of  the  bricks ;  they  are  white 
tiles,  placed  on  the  tops  of  the  chimneys  to  keep  them 
from  smoking. 

Notice  that  great  building  just  below  us,  with  the  ceme- 
tery rising  in  terraces  behind  it.  That  is  the  Glasgow 
cathedral,  where  John  Knox  once  preached,  and  there 
in  the  business  part  of  the  city  is  George  Square.  That 
statue  of  the  man  in  a  shepherd's  plaid,  standing  near  the 
center,  on  that  column  eighty  feet  high,  represents  the 
great  novelist,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  the  bronze  statue  near 
by  is  that  of  James  Watt,  a  native  of  Scotland,  who,  in 
1763,  first  made  steam  do  good  work  for  man.  He  invented 
the  first  condensing  steam  engine,  and  was  in  reality  the 
father  of  the  vast  manufacturing  interest  represented  by 
the  thousands  of  smokestacks  about  us,  and  by  th6  fac- 
tories, steamships,  and  railroads  all  over  the  world. 

Leaving  Glasgow,  we  visit  the  different  parts  of  manu- 
facturing Scotland.  In  Paisley,  a  few  miles  away,  we  see 
four  thousand  men,  women,  and  children  turning  our  raw 
cotton  into  the  thread  wound  upon  spools  which  is  used 
for  sewing  all  over  the  world.  In  other  factories'  they 
are  weaving  silk,  and  in  others  the  famed  Paisley  shawls. 
In  the  towns  of  the  Tweed  valley  we  visit  woolen  mills, 
where  they  are  weaving  the  Scotch  tweeds  and  Scotch 
cheviots  which  our  tailors  import  for  fine  clothing.  The 
term  tweed  comes  from  the  Tweed  valley,  and  the  cheviot 
cloths  are  so  called  because  much  of  the  wool  of  which 
they  are  made  is  cut  from  the  sheep  that  graze  on  the 
Cheviot  Hills. 


40  SCOTLAND. 


V.  THE  SCOTTISH  HIGHLANDS— EDINBURGH 
—  THE  HOMES  OF  ROBERT  BURNS  AND 
WALTER   SCOTT. 

WE  shall  take  our  guns  with  us  this  morning.  We 
are  going  into  the  Highlands,  and  may  get  an  in- 
vitation to  hunt  upon  one  of  the  big  estates.  In  the  past, 
northern  Scotland  was  owned  by  the  Highlanders,  who 
lived  chiefly  by  raising  sheep  and  cattle  and  by  hunting^. 
They  were  divided  up  into  clans  or  tribes,  much  as  our 
American  Indians  were.  Each  clan  was  one  family,  some 
clans  containing  thousands  of  cousins,  all  of  whom  went 
by  one  name  and  fought  and  worked  together.  Every  clan 
had  its  chief,  and  was  ready  to  fight  at  any  time  with 
the  neighboring  clans  or  outsiders.  The  clans  had  their 
own  war  cries,  and  badges  and  shawls  woven  in  different 
plaids.  The  chiefs  had  great  castles,  and  maintained  a 
sort  of  court  about  them./ 

At 'that  time  the  lands  belonged  to  the  clans,  being 
divided  out  from  time  to  time  among  the  members  by  the 
chiefs.  Later  on,  they  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  chiefs, 
and  the  poor  cousins  served  as  their  tenants.  Then  the 
chiefs  found  they  could  get  more  for  the  lands  by  selling 
or  letting  them  as  hunting  grounds  to  outsiders  than  by 
rearing  sheep  and  cattle.  They  drove  the  poor  tenants 
away,  sometimes  burning  the  cabins  over  their  heads  to 
keep  them  from  returning. 

One  by  one  they  sold  their  farms,  so  that  the  greater 
part  of  northern  Scotland  now  belongs  to  rich  strangers. 
The  country  is  one  of  large  estates,  seventy  men  owning 
more  than  half  of  it.    Many  of  the  estates  are  held  by  Eng- 


THE  SCOTTISH   HIGHLANDS. 


41 


Loch  Katrine. 


lishmen  and  Americans,  who  come  here  during  a  part  of 
each  year  to  shoot  game,  and  the  demand  for  such  shoot- 
ings is  so  great  that  the  pastures  have  been  allowed  to 
grow  wild  to  supply  it.  Hills  and  valleys,  upon  which 
hundreds  of  cattle  and  sheep  once  fed,  are  now  given  over 
to  the  deer  and  grouse ;  and  there  are  millions  of  acres 
devoted  to  hunting  and  fishing.  There  are  deer  parks  of 
thousands  of  acres,  vast  forests  in  which  all  but  the  owners 
are  forbidden  to  go,  and  where  the  poor  Highlander  will  be 
surely  arrested  if  he  kills  the  deer  or  snares  birds  or  rabbits. 
There  are  more  than  four  thousand  shooting  grounds. 
Some  of  the  shootings  bring  high  prices,  and  it  is  said 
that  the  Duke  of  Sutherland  receives  about  a  quarter  of 
a  milHon  dollars  a  year  as  rent  for  his  fish  streams  and 
forests. 

OF  THE 


42 


SCOTLAND. 


We  skirt  the  edge  of  the  Highlands  as  we  go  from 
Glasgow  to  Edinburgh  by  the  Trossachs,  seeing  many 
men  hunting  grouse  with  dogs  and  guns  as  we  ride  in 
stages  over  the  moors.  We  sail  over  Loch  Lomond  and 
across  Loch  Katrine,  through  the  scenes  described  in  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  poem,  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake." 

All  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  are  beautiful,  and  the 
Trossachs  are  especially  so.  The  moorlands  are  covered 
with  heather,  —  low  bushes  which  look  like  sprigs  of  dark 
green  pine  set  into  the  ground,  and  which,  with  their  little 
rose-colored  blossoms,  coat  the  low  hills  and  the  sides  of 
the  mountains  with  masses  of  dark  green  and  rose.    . 


"  Edinburgh  castle  stands  on  a  rock." 

We  stop  at  Stirling  to  see  the  great  castle  where  Mary 
Stuart  was  crowned  queen  of  the  Scots,  and  afterward 
visit  the  chamber  in  the  castle  at  Edinburgh  where  her 
son,  James  VI  of  Scotland,  who  was  afterward  James  I 
of   England,  was  born.      Edinburgh   castle    stands  on  a 


THE   SCOTTISH   HIGHLANDS. 


43 


rock  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  and  when  you  read  more  of  English  history  you  will 
learn  what  a  terrible  time  Queen  Mary  had  here. 

Mary  was  the  last  ruler  under  whom  Scotland  was  a  sepa- 
rate nation,  for  her  son  James  became  king  of  both  England 
and  Scotland,  which  since 
then  have  been  united.  The 
Scottish  Highlanders  are  now 
among  the  best  soldiers  of 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland.  We  see 
many  of  them  when  we  visit 
the  castle  in  Edinburgh. 
They  are  dressed  in  the  cos- 
tume once  common  through- 
out the  Highlands,  and  at  first 
we  hardly  know  whether  they 
are  women  or  men.  They 
wear  plaid  shawls  on  their 
shoulders,  and  have  kilted 
skirts  of  bright  colors  falling 
in    plaits   from  the  waist  to  ^^ 

the  knee.  Their  knees  are  bare,  and  it  is  several  inches 
below  them  that  the  plaid  stockings  begin.  They  wear 
turbanlike  caps  with  ribbons  at  the  back,  and  their  shoes 
are  bound  around  with  white  canvas  bands.  Each  man 
carries  a  sword  and  a  musket,  and  has  a  fur  pouch  at  his 
belt,  while  some  have  a  knife  in  the  top  of  one  stocking. 
We  see  boys  wearing  this  costume  on  the  streets  of  Edin- 
burgh, although  most  of  the  children  dress  as  we  do. 

Excepting  the  soldiers,  the  style  of  dress  of  the  Scotch  is 
much  the  same  as  our  own.  Some  of  the  poorer  women  and 
children  go  about  without  hats,  and  some  are  barefooted. 


44 


SCOTLAND. 


We  meet  fishwives  from  Newhaven,  in  short  gowns  and 
bare  arms,  carrying  great  baskets  of  fish  on  their  backs ; 

and  out  in  the  country  we 
see  women  standing  in  tubs, 
with  their  skirts  tucked  up 
to  their  knees,  treading  the- 
dirt  out  of  the  clothing,  in- 
stead of  using  washboards  as 
we  do. 

The  Scotch  people  are 
noted  for  their  thrift  and 
economy.  Both  men  and 
women  are  industrious 
and  saving,  and  the  women 
hoe  in  the  fields  and  work  in 
the  stores,  the  hotels,  and  the 
factories. 

We  are  delighted  with  Ed- 
inburgh. It  is  a  beautiful 
city,  noted  as  a  center  of  culture  and  learning.  More 
books  are  published  here  than  in  any  other  city  of  Great 
Britain,  except  London  ;  its  university  is  attended  by 
about  three  thousand  students,  and  it  has  so  many  great 
scholars  that  it  is  sometimes  called  the  Athens  of  the 
United  Kingdom. 

We  are  in  the  city  on  Sunday.  How  quiet  it  is !  The 
cars  are  not  running,  the  stores  are  all  closed,  and  the 
streets  are  almost  deserted.  The  Scotch  keep  the  Sab- 
bath more  strictly  than  any  other  people  of  Europe.  They 
go  to  church  or  remain  at  their  homes.  There  are  no 
Sunday  newspapers,  and  it  is  hard  to  get  a  carriage  for  a 
ride  in  the  parks.  We  go  to  the  cathedral  and  find  the 
church  filled.      It  was  here  that  John  Knox  preached,  and 


We  meet  fishwives.' 


EDINBURGH. 


45 


by  taking  a  little  walk  down  High  Street  we  can  see  the 
old  stone  house  where  he  lived.  He  was  a  great  religious 
reformer  who  did  much  to  make  the  world  better.  Over 
the  door  of  his  house  we  see  the  words  carved  in  the  stone, 
"  Love  God  above  all  and  your  neighbor  as  yourself." 


"  —      A  u     -:-:_:      .-.   .  ..     .  ,     tubs." 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  the  great  bridge  which  crosses 
the  Firth  of  Forth  near  Edinburgh  ?  It  is  bigger  than  the 
one  connecting  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn,  and  is  the  me- 
chanical wonder  of  Scotland.  It  is  an  enormous  structure 
of  stone,  iron,  and  steel,  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half  long, 
built  upon  piers  with  spans  high  over  the  water.     We  get 


46 


SCOTLAND. 


some  idea  of  its  size  when  we  are  told  that  it  has  cost 
more  than  our  Capitol  building  at  Washington,  and  that 
the  rivets  used  to  fasten  the  iron  together  are  so    many 


Forth  Bridge. 

that,  if  placed  end  to  end,  they  would  reach  from  Edinburgh 
clear  to  the  end  of  Great  Britain  and  across  the  English 
Channel  to  France. 

From  Edinburgh  we  make  a  trip  to  Ayr,  where  Robert 
Burns,  the  great  poet  of  Scotland,  was  born.  The  train 
takes  us  through  rich  fields  separated  by  green  hedges  and 
moss-grown  stone  walls.  The  crops  are  luxuriant,  and  we 
see  that  the  lowlands  have  excellent  farms.  There  are 
many  small  farmhouses  with  stables  about  them,  but  no 
great  barns  such  as  you  see  in  our  country. 

Robert  Burns  was  a  farmer,  and  he  plowed  the  fields 
just  as  that  farmer  is  plowing  them  now  over  there  at  the 
side  of  the  road.  His  home  was  near  Ayr,  where  we  leave 
the  train  and  take  a  carriage  to  drive  out  to  Alloway,  the 
little  village  in  which  he  first  saw  the  light  of  this  world. 

We  visit  the  cottage  in  which  he  was  born.     It  is  a  stone 


THE   HOMES  OF  BURNS  AND   SCOTT. 


47 


hut  with  roof  of  thatched  straw.  The  door  is  low,  and 
there  is  now  a  turnstile  within  it  so  arranged  that  we  have 
to  pay  a  penny  before  we  enter.  The  floor  is  of  stone, 
and  at  the  side  of  the  chimney  is  the  iron  crane  which 
was  used  to  hold  the  kettle  over  the  fire.  After  leaving 
the  cottage  we  visit  the  ruins  of  Alloway  kirk,  then  walk 
for  a  time  upon  the  beautiful  banks  of    the   Doon,  and 


Where  Burns  was  born. 


after  a  lunch  in  Tam  O'Shanter's  Inn  in  Ayr,  go  back  to 
Edinburgh. 

Another  day  is  spent  at  Abbotsford,  the  home  of  the 
great  novelist,  Sir  Walter  Scott.  The  house  is  much  like 
a  castle.  It  is  a  grand  stone  structure  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tweed,  with  large  windows  giving  magnificent  views.  We 
walk  through  the  library,  where  Scott's  interesting  stories 
were  written,  and  admire  his  collection  of  weapons,  includ- 
ing Rob  Roy's  gun  and  a  pistol  which  once  belonged  to 


48 


ENGLAND. 


m 

^RpB^^r^KdlP'''^^  ^        ^^  ^^HnaJH^^H 

4 
1 

W'^^ 

^^HH^Hsn^;  \^iiJr' tXW  1  tJ 

i^.L-l-^  IS' 

fi:*!'."    ■'■  A 

■^i'l 

TQBlsipf-E 

llr^^9HHH 

i^A    ■     ^-1 

^-'■m 

t 

Mil  Mi'lliSililll 

mm     ^- » 

WWk 

^M^  j^    '    :% 

^i'i?-'-'     " 

.,  (   ■ . 

^ 

'"A 

^ 

'    1; 

Abbotsford. 


Napoleon  Bonaparte.  Afterward  we  visit  Melrose  Abbey, 
and  also  the  Abbey  of  Dryburgh,  where  Scott  was  buried, 
and  then  take  a  train  south  for  England. 


>J»?c 


VI.     RURAL   ENGLAND. 


WE  have  crossed  the  Cheviot  Hills  and  passed  over 
the  border  of  Scotland  into  merrie  old  England. 
How  fresh  the  air  is  and  how  luxuriant  the  crops !  The 
country  is  Hke  a  garden,  and  even  the  banks  on  the  sides 
of  the  railroad  are  velvety  green. 

We  have  seats  near  the  windows  in  one  of  the  little 
rooms  or  compartments  into  which  the  English  cars  are 
divided.     The  door  is  in  the  side  of  the  car  instead  of  at 


RURAL  ENGLAND.  49 

the  end.  There,  it  opens.  •  The  conductor  stands  on  the 
footboard  outside  as  he  asks  for  our  tickets.  Now  he  has 
shut  the  door  and  gone  on  to  the  next  compartment.  We 
wonder  how  it  would  be  if  a  crazy  man  were  with  us. 
The  door  is  locked,  and  the  car  is  now  moving  at  forty 
miles  an  hour ;  but  fortunately  we  have  the  room  to  our- 
selves and  feel  comparatively  safe. 

We  find  the  English  railroads  very  good.  England  is  so 
small  and  its  people  do  so  much  business  that  they  can 
afford  to  have  a  good 


railroad  system.  ,  -^ 


"  We  find  the  English  rail- 
roads very  good." 

There  is  a  network  of  tracks 

covering  the  country.     There  are  so 

many   tracks   that    if    they    were    joined 

end  to  end  they  would  reach  almost  around 

the  world.     The  roadbeds  are  smooth,  and  even  the  small 

stations  are  of  stone  with  solid  stone  platforms.      Every 

station  has  its  garden  about  it,  and  the  grass  is  as  smoothly 

cut  as  a  beautiful  lawn. 

We  find  that  on  every  train  there  are  two  classes  of 
cars,  and  that  some  trains  have  three.  The  cars  of  the 
first  class  are  fine,  and  those  of  the  second  and  third  are 
almost  as  comfortable ;  as  they  are  much  cheaper,  we  fre- 
quently travel  third  class.  Indeed  it  is  a  common  saying 
in  England  that  only  princes  and  fools  travel  first  class. 

The  English  railroads  have  some  of  the  fastest  trains  of 


so 


ENGLAND. 


the  world.  We  might  have  gone  from  Edinburgh  to 
London  on  the  "  Flying  Scotchman,"  at  an  average 
speed  of  more  than  a  mile  a  minute ;  but  we  are  traveling 
leisurely,  stopping  now  and  then  to  visit  places  of  interest. 
Notice  the  farms  as  we  go !  The  fields  are  divided  by 
green  hedgerows.     There  is  a  flock  of  fat  sheep  in  that 


^'^^^v^^Hffi^  .  '  ^      '  ''^■^^K 

:       ■■      -*:;♦#.  i 

'^HP'/~                            ^H^HHIHt 

*                                 ^^'*:w^'    .^ 

a  little  farm  settlement.' 


meadow  and  farther  on  are  some  beautiful  cattle.  This 
country  is  noted  for  its  delicious  mutton,  and  its  people  pride 
themselves  on  "  the  roast  beef  of  old  England."  There  is 
a  man  holding  the  handles  of  a  plow  which  two  horses 
are  dragging  along,  and  in  the  next  field  a  steam  plow  is 
puffing  as  it  drives  the  share  through  the  earth.  The  peo- 
ple use  mowers,  reapers,  and  threshing  machines.  They 
are  good  farmers,  and  they  have  the  best  farming  tools. 


BRITISH  ISIiES 


SCALE  OF  MILES  

i  60  ilJo  Teo      ^ 


52  ENGLAND. 

Look  at  the  farmhouses !  We  see  many  of  them  as  we 
go  by  on  the  railroad.  Each  has  a  barn,  sheds,  and  hay- 
stacks about  it,  forming  a  little  farm  settlement.  The 
barns  are  different  from  ours.  They  are  broader  and 
lower,  and  some  have  heavy  thatched  roofs.  They  are 
used  chiefly  for  stables,  and  for  storing  grain  and  tools. 
The  hay  and  straw  are  ricked  up  out  of  doors,  the  tops  of 
the  ricks  being  thatched  or  covered  with  canvas. 

How  old  everything  is !  The  moss  is  growing  on  the 
roof  of  that  barn,  and  the  side  of  that  farmhouse  is  cov- 
ered with  ivy.  The  hedges  look  as  though  they  had  al- 
ways been  here,  and  these  roads  were  traveled  by  men 
when  the  only  roads  in  our  country  were  Indian  trails. 

Now  we  get  an  outlook  over  a  valley.  There  is  a  stream 
flowing  through  it  lined  with  wide-branching  trees.  The 
stream  is  crossed  here  and  there  by  little  bridges  made  of 
heavy  stones  closely  fitted  together,  and  now  half  covered 
with  moss.  The  bridges,  like  everything  else,  are  substan- 
tial, for  the  English  believe  in  doing  things  well,  and  think 
that  the  best  is  the  cheapest.  We  see  this  in  their  rail- 
roads, their  houses,  and  in  all  public  improvements. 

Look  again  over  the  valley.  The  fields  have  little  paths 
through  them.  The  people  usually  cut  across  lots  to  visit 
their  neighbors,  and  we  see  many  persons  strolling  through 
the  green  meadows.  The  English  are  great  walkers  ;  the 
ordinary  boy  or  girl  here  thinks  nothing  of  a  five-mile 
tramp  in  the  country.  They  are  fond  of  outdoor  sports. 
We  frequently  pass  parties  playing  golf,  and  now  and 
then  see  a  crowd  of  boys  playing  cricket,  the  English 
national  game. 

But  what  is  that  great  stone  building  which  rises  like  a 
fortification  upon  the  hill  in  the  distance  ?  That  is  the 
ruins  of  an  old  English  castle  like  Kenilworth,  Warwick, 


RURAL  ENGLAND.  53 

and  other  castles  of  which  we  have  read.  It  was  built 
hundreds  of  years  ago,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the 
home  of  a  knight  or  baron  with  his  chief  soldiers  or  re- 
tainers. If  we  should  enter  it,  we  should  find  that  it 
has  narrow  stone  stairs,  that  its  rooms  are  lighted  by  slits 
in  the  walls  or  by  small  barred  windows,  and  heated  by 
great  fireplaces.  We  should  see  that  even  the  best  parts 
of  the  castle  are  gloomy  and  dreary,  and  that  the  Ameri- 
can workingman  of  to-day  has  more  comforts  than  that 
noble  had  in  the  past,  even  though  he  owned  all  the  land 
he  could  see  from  the  top  of  his  castle. 

The  most  of  England  is  still  in  the  hands  of  a  few  peo- 
ple. It  is  the  property  of  the  nobility  and  other  rich  men, 
who  rent  it  out  to  the  farmers,  charging  them  from  five  to 
twenty  dollars  an  acre  per  year  for  its  use. 

We  see  the  houses  of  many  of  these  rich  landowners  as 
we  ride  on  through  the  country.  There  is  one  rising  out 
of  the  grove  of  trees  just  beyond  us.  It  is  a  great  mansion, 
shut  off  from  the  road  by  high  walls  and  surrounded  by  a 
beautiful  park.  It  has  a  fine  garden  and  hothouses,  and 
a  velvety  lawn.  Its  owner  has  perhaps  a  score  of  servants, 
and  he  may  own  many  farms.  He  probably  has  woods 
stocked  with  pheasants,  partridges,  and  other  game  in- 
tended for  his  own  shooting,  which  the  poor  people  dare 
not  touch.  There  are  such  estates  in  all  parts  of  England. 
They  are  usually  willed  by  the  father  to  the  eldest  son, 
and  thus  kept  in  the  same  family  from  generation  to 
generation. 

But  the  train  has  stopped  at  a  station.  It  is  a  village, 
and  we  stay  over  night.  The  houses  are  substantial. 
Many  of  them  are  old,  and  some  are  covered  with  vines. 
The  walls  are  thick,  and  the  roofs  of  tile  or  thatch  often 
extend  far  out.     Most  of  the  houses  have  little  gardens  in 

CARP.    EUROPE  —  4 


54 


ENGLAND. 


front  of  them.     There  are  rose  bushes  and  other  plants 
reminding  us  of  our  gardens  at  home. 

That  house  on  the  corner,  with  a  sign  "  The  King's 
Arms  "  over  the  door,  is  the  pubhc  house  or  hotel,  and  that 
little  building  with  the  big  tower  farther  down  is  one  of  the 
churches,  while  still  farther  on  is  the  school. 


" — still  farther  on  is  the  school." 

The  people  on  the  street  dress  and  look  much  like  our 
people  at  home.  Some  of  the  storekeepers  have  come 
out  at  the  sound  of  the  train,  and  they  stare  at  the  Ameri- 
cans as  they  pass.  There,  on  the  left  of  the  road,  is  a 
shoemaker,  and  beyond  are  a  carpenter,  a  butcher,  and  a 
grocer.  Each  wears  a  white  apron  which  covers  almost 
the  whole  front  of  his  person.  This  is  common  with  many 
of  the  mechanics  of  England. 


MANUFACTURING   ENGLAND. 


55 


See  that  man  with  the  white  smock  over  his  clothes.  He 
looks  as  though  he  had  put  on  his  nightshirt  over  his  ordi- 
nary suit.  He  is  a  carter,  and  is  driving  a  team  of  four 
horses  bringing  in  a  cartload  of  grain.  The  cart  is  bigger 
than  any  used  in 
our  country.  Its 
wheels  are  broader 
and  it  will  carry  far 
more  than  our  com- 
mon farm  wagon. 
The  horses  are 
hitched  up  tandem ; 
they  have  heavy 
harness,  and  each 
has  a  bell  fastened 
to  his  collar,  which 
jingles  merrily  as  he  tramps  along.  Now  another  team 
has  come  down  the  road,  and  the  two  are  passing.  See, 
each  turns  to  the  left !  This  is  the  custom  in  England. 
Drivers  always  go  to  the  left,  but  foot  passengers  turn  to 
the  right  as  we  do. 


See  that  man  with  the  white  smock  over  his 
clothes." 


VII.     MANUFACTURING    ENGLAND. 


AT  one  time  the  farms  of  England  were  more  important 
than  her  factories.  The  Enghsh  not  only  raised  all 
the  food  they  needed,  but  were  able  to  export  wheat  to 
other  countries.  It  is  far  different  to-day.  The  soil  still 
produces  abundantly,  but  the  people  have  so  grown  in 
number  that  if  all  the  farms  were  worked  they  could  not 
supply  England  with  enough  to  eat  for  one  month.  The 
result  is  that  most  of  the  food  is  brought  in  from  abroad,  and 


56  ENGLAND. 

the  greater  part  of  it  from  the  United  States.  Steamships 
loaded  with  grain,  flour,  and  meat  are  always  leaving  our 
seaports  for  different  parts  of  Great  Britain.  The  English 
are  raising  less  and  less  .food  every  year,  and  there  are 
now  more  than  six  persons  in  the  factories  to  every  one  on 
the  farms. 

To-day  we  shall  travel  through  some  of  the  great  manu- 
facturing districts.  We  go  on  southward,  passing  many 
towns  and  stopping  at  big  cities  half  hidden  in  smoke. 
The  farms  are  still  large,  but  the  landscape  is  dotted  with 
groves  of  smokestacks  much  as  our  Middle  States  are 
dotted  with  trees.  Those  smoking  groves  are  the  sites  of 
manufacturing  villages. 

We  are  now  in  a  district  where  the  whole  country  is  one 
vast  workshop.  We  pass  mines  where  ^sooty-faced  ^men 
are  getting  coal  and  iron  out  of  the  earth.  We  go  by 
long  trains  of  coal  cars,  by  great  piles  of  slag,  the  refuse 
of  the  furnaces  which  are  turning  the  ore  into  pig  iron  and 
steel.  See  how  their  tall  chimneys  are  pouring  out  smoke 
and  flames  into  the  sky.  The  din  of  the  machinery  from 
the  vast,  ugly,  many- windowed  factories  almost  drowns  the 
noise  of  the  train. 

How  dirty  everything  is !  The  towns  and  cities  are 
black  with  the  smoke,  the  air  is  full  of  soot,  and  we  look 
with  disgust  on  our  soiled  collars  and  cuffs,  each  wonder- 
ing if  his  face  can  possibly  be  as  dirty  as  that  of  his 
neighbor. 

We  ask  if  much  of  England  is  like  this,  and  are  told 
that  it  is,  and  that  the  English  are  one  of  the  chief  manu- 
facturing nations.  They  make  more  woolen  cloth  than 
any  other  people.  They  weave  enough  cotton  every  year 
to  carpet  a  road  wider  than  almost  any  road  in  our  country 
clear  around  the  world.     They  make  more  things  out  of 


MANUFACTURING  ENGLAND.  57 

iron,  steel,  and  copper  than  any  other  nation  of  Europe,  and 
there  is  scarcely  an  article  in  common  use  which  they  do 
not  manufacture  for  sale.  They  sell  more  goods  to  other 
countries  than  any  other  people,  notwithstanding  much  of 
the  stuff  which  they  use  in  making  the  goods  comes  from 
abroad.  ^ 

But  why  is  this  little  island  such  an  important  manu- 
facturing country  ? 

We  shall  see  some  of  the  reasons  as  we  travel  from  one 
busy  district  to  another.  In  the  first  place,  England  has 
railroads  and  canals  almost  everywhere,  and  so  many  good 
seaports  that  it  costs  but  little  to  put  the  goods  on  the 
ships  which  are  to  take  them  to  the  markets.  The  Eng- 
lish are  so  rich  that  they  have  plenty  of  money  to  build 
factories.  They  are  a  thrifty  people,  and  skilled  in  hand- 
ling tools  and  machinery.  But  what  is  still  more  important, 
they  have  the  richest  coal  fields  of  Europe,  and  their  coal 
fields  are  near  the  sea.  We  shall  find  the  chief  factories 
right  in  the  coal  fields,  for  it  is  cheaper  to  use  tjie  coal 
where  it  is  mined  than  to  carry  it  over  the  country.  The 
freight  rates  are  so  low,  however,  that  we  find  factories 
almost  everywhere. 

We  first  visit  the  Northumberland  coal  fields,  in  north- 
eastern England;  they  are  the  largest  in  Great  Britain, 
producing  thirty  million  tons  of  coal  every  year  and  feed- 
ing many  great  factories.  We  stop  at  Newcastle  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Tyne,  and  watch  the  great  steamers  loading 
coal  for  shipment  abroad,  and  wander  about  through  its 
noisy  shipbuilding  yards,  which  are  almost  as  large  as 
those  we  saw  on  the  Clyde  below  Glasgow.     ,. 

Farther  south  we  enter  the  coal  fields  of  Yorkshire.  It 
is  smokier  than  ever,  but  we  forget  all  about  the  dirt  as 
we  go  from  town  to  town  and  from  factory  to  factory, 


5S 


ENGLAND. 


"We  stop  at  Newcastle." 


seeing  many  wonderful  things.  We  spend  some  days  in 
Leeds  on  the  River  Aire  (ar),  visiting  the  great  woolen 
mills  and  watching  the  sales  in  the  cloth  halls  on  market 
days.  Leeds  is  the  center  of  the  English  woolen  indus- 
try, and  in  it  and  in  the  towns  near  by  all  sorts  of  weaving 
are  done.  We  watch  them  making  all  kinds  of  cloth,  and 
learn  that  England  has  long  been  noted  for  its  woolens. 
It  employs  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  people  in  its 
cloth  factories,  and  consumes  vast  quantities  of  wool  from 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  Argentina.  We  visit  the  mills 
where  silk  velvets  are  woven,  go  to  Halifax  to  learn  all 
about  carpets,  and  at  Bradford  watch  them  make  worsteds. 
At  Dewsbury,  near  Leeds,  we  visit  one  of  the  chief 
blanket  factories,   where  our  guide  informs  us  that  the 


MANUFACTURING  ENGLAND.  59 

first  blanket  ever  made  was  woven  in  1 340  by  an  English- 
man named  Thomas  Blanket ;  his  goods  were  so  peculiar 
that  the  people  called  them  after  his  name,  blankets.  We 
listen  without  comment,  although  we  know  that  blanket  is 
from  a  French  word  meaning  white. 

Do  you  want  a  good  pocketknif e  ? 

They  make  some  of  the  best  knives  in  the  world  at 
Sheffield,  in  this  same  Yorkshire  coal  district.  The  city 
lies  in  a  nest  in  the  hills  at  the  junction  of  several  streams 
with  the  Don.  It  is  as  smoky  as  Pittsburg,  and  has 
almost  as  many  factories  and  foundries.  It  is  the  center 
of  the  cutlery  industry,  being  especially  noted  for  its 
razors,  scissors,  and  all  kinds  of  fine  tools,  which  it  exports 
to  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  has  been  making  tools  for 
three  hundred  years,  and  it  annually  sends  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  knives  across  the  ocean  to  us. 

Let  us  enter  one  of  the  knife  factories.  A  knife  is  a 
little  thing,  but  it  may  give  us  a  lesson  in  geography. 
There  is  a  box  of  samples  showing  the  different  kinds  of 
knives  made  in  this  factory.  Take  a  dozen  knives  out 
and  look  at  them.  Open  one  and  draw  the  edge  of  the 
blade  across  your  thumb  nail.  It  cuts  smoothly  and  is 
as  sharp  as  a  razor.  That  blade  was  made  of  iron  from 
Sweden  ;  it  was  dug  from  the  mines  there  and  sent  across 
the  North  Sea  to  England,  that  the  workmen  might  have 
the  best  ore  for  their  steel. 

Look  now  at  the  other  parts  of  the  knife,  and  see  how 
each  of  them  has  traveled  far  and  long  to  get  here.  Shef- 
field makes  one  think  of  Cinderella,  for  she  sits  in  the 
ashes  of  her  coal  pits  and  prays  to  her  fairy  godmother. 
Commerce,  who  straightway  waves  her  wand  and  per- 
forms miracles  for  her.  The  fairy  raises  her  hand,  and 
the  miners  of  Sweden  dig  out  this  ore  and  it  is  carried  to 


6o  ENGLAND. 

the  ship.  She  moves  it  again,  and  starts  the  metals  in 
those  brass  rivets  from  their  homes  in  the  mountains  of 
South  America  and  the  United  States.  Again,  and  the 
nickel  which  plated  the  ends  of  the  handles  comes  from 
the  mines  of  Canada  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  while  the 
silver  in  the  name  plate  was  probably  contributed  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Peru,  and  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  or 
went  south  around  through  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  before 
it  began  its  longer  ocean  voyage  to  Sheffield. 

Observe  the  variety  of  materials  in  the  knives,  and 
wonder  what  a  story  each  handle  could  tell  of  its  travels. 
Here  is  one  of  ivory  from  the  wilds  of  Central  Africa. 
The  handle  of  that  knife  beside  it  came  from  the  horn  of 
a  reindeer,  which  perhaps  dragged  the  sleds  of  fur-clad 
people  over  the  snows  of  Siberia  ;  and  this  lady's  penknife 
has  a  handle  made  from  an  opalescent  shell  which  was 
once  the  house  of  a  pearl  oyster  in  the  waters  of  our 
Philippine  Islands.  There  are  some  of  brown  shell  from 
the  backs  of  tortoises  which  were  crawling  along  the 
banks  of  the  Amazon  when  they  were  captured  for  Shef- 
field, and  just  beyond  is  one  made  from  the  horns  of 
an  East  Indian  buffalo.  This  white-handled  knife  is 
bound  with  plates  of  vegetable  ivory  grown  on  the  palm 
trees  of  tropical  South  America,  and  those  bone  handles 
have  come  from  skeletons  of  cattle  which  once  galloped 
over  our  Western  plains  with  cowboys  behind  them.  The 
manager  tells  us  they  are  made  from  the  shank  bones,  and 
are  known  to  the  trade  as  Boston  bones.  We  think  he 
should  rather  name  them  Kansas  City,  Omaha,  or  Chicago 
bones,  for  it  is  at  those  cities  that  most  of  our  cattle  are 
killed  for  shipment  to  Europe. 

If  we  had  time  to  spend  in  manufacturing  England,  we 
should   find    Dame   Commerce   performing  wonders   like 


MANUFACTURING  ENGLAND.  6l 

these  for  every  city  and  village.  She  sets  all  nations  to 
work  to  get  out  material  for  the  English  to  make  over  into 
things  for  themselves,  or  to  ship  abroad  for  sale.  We 
should  see  how  hides  and  skins  are  torn  from  the  backs  of 
all  sorts  of  animals  to  keep  busy  the  half  million  English- 
men who  are  working  in  leather,  how  the  wool  is  clipped 
from  miUions  of  sheep  in  other  parts  of  the  world  to  sup- 
ply her  vast  army  of  weavers,  and  how  silkworms  are 
raised  and  their  cocoons  reeled  off  by  the  almond-eyed 
people  of  China  and  Japan  to  furnish  thread  for  the 
factories  near  Leeds  which  we  saw  making  silks,  ribbons, 
and  velvets. 

We  next  visit  Birmingham,  the  industrial  capital  of 
middle  England.  It  is  situated  where  was  once  the  forest 
of  Arden,  a  dense  woods  which  in  former  times  extended 
through  Warwickshire  and  others  of  the  Midland  Counties 
of  England.  In  the  country  about  there  are  iron  mines, 
and  long  before  it  was  known  that  coal  could  be  used  to 
smelt  iron  the  people  made  charcoal  for  the  purpose  from 
the  trees  of  this  famous  forest.  At  that  time  every  house 
was  a  little  factory,  having  its  own  blacksmith  shop,  in  which 
the  whole  family  worked,  the  women  and  children  pound- 
ing out  nails,  chains,  and  other  small  articles.  Later  coal 
was  brought  from  the  mines  near  by,  and  Birmingham 
became  one  of  the  chief  iron-making  centers  of  the  world. 
The  people  were  already  skilled  in  handling  tools,  and 
they  soon  learned  to  make  things  by  machinery. 

At  present  Birmingham  produces  millions  of  steel  pens 
every  year,  and  millions  upon  millions  of  screws  and  nails, 
and  so  many  pins  and  needles  that  if  you  should  sit  down 
and  try  to  count  the  number  made  in  one  month,  you  could 
hardly  finish  the  job  in  your  lifetime.  The  city  has  also 
foundries  and  factories  for  heavy  machinery,  steam  engines. 


62  ENGLAND. 

and  cannon;  it  makes  vast  numbers  of  bicycles  and 
sewing  machines,  and  also  buttons  and  jewelry  and  other 
articles  of  every  description  from  iron,  brass,  steel,  copper, 
and  tin,  as  well  as  froni  silver  and  gold.  It  makes  so 
many  toys  that  it  has  been  called  the  toy  shop  of  Europe, 
and  we  enjoy  ourselves  going  through  the  establishments 
where  toy  engines,  little  iron  wagons,  and  countless  other 
things  to  amuse  children  are  made  in  large  quantities. 

From  Birmingham  we  take  a  train  for  Manchester,  situ- 
ated in  the  Lancashire  coal  fields,  to  see  the  cotton 
mills  which  are  fed  by  the  plantations  of  our  southern 
States.  England  is  our  best  customer  for  cotton,  and  we 
sell  her  miUions  of  bales  every  year.  Her  soil  is  such 
that  she  cannot  raise  cotton ;  but,  nevertheless,  making 
cotton  thread  and  weaving  cotton  cloth  are  by  far  the 
most  important  of  all  her  industries,  and  she  has  twenty- 
five  hundred  factories,  in  which  more  than  a  half  million 
people  are  employed,  including  one  hundred  thousand 
children. 

We  pass  through  many  cotton-spinning  towns  on  our 
way  to  Manchester,  for  the  Lancashire  coal  fields  are 
densely  populated.  The  country  is  dotted  with  smoke- 
stacks, and  the  water  is  so  discolored  by  the  dyes  used  for 
calicoes  and  other  cloths  that  the  streams  and  canals  seem 
to  flow  ink.  We  visit  Preston,  where  in  1768  Arkwright 
set  up  his  first  mill  to  weave  cotton  by  machinery,  and  at 
Blackburn,  in  a  little  valley  nine  miles  away,  see  where 
Hargraves  established  his  "  spinning  jenny  "  at  about  the 
same  time.  Both  towns  are  still  important  weaving  places, 
Preston  being  noted  for  its  yarns  and  fine  cotton  cloths. 

We  spend  some  days  in  Manchester  going  through  its 
many  warehouses  and  its  numerous  factories.  It  is  the 
fourth  city  of  Great  Britain  in  size,  and  its  commerce  has 


MANUFACTURING   ENGLAND. 


63 


been  much  increased  by  the  canal  which  its  people  have 
dug  out  to  the  sea. 

For  a  long  time  all  the  cotton  used  here  was  landed  at 
Liverpool,  and  thence  shipped  by  rail  to  the  factories.  By 
the  Manchester  Canal  large  steamers  can  come  from  the 
ocean  right  into  the  city,  and  bring  the  cotton  from  our 
country  almost  to  the  doors  Of  the  mills. 


Manchester  Canal. 

This  canal  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  Great  Britain.  It 
is  more  than  thirty-five  miles  long,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
feet  wide,  and  twenty-six  feet  deep.  It  cost  a  vast  sum, 
but  Manchester  people  believe  it  will  make  their  city  grow 
as  Glasgow  did  after  the  deepening  of  the  Clyde.  A  part 
of  this  canal  was  made  by  deepening  the  little  river  Irwell, 
which  flows  through  Manchester  on  its  way  to  the  sea. 

We  take  a  trip  on  the  canal,  passing  cotton  mills  all 
the  way  down.     Now  we  pass  ships  from  New  Orleans, 


64 


ENGLAND. 


Savannah,  and  Galveston,  coming  up  or  unloading  cotton 
bales  at  the  mills  on  the  banks,  and  now  pass  cotton  ships 
from  Egypt  and  India.  There  are  other  vessels  loaded 
with  manufactured  goods  going  down  stream,  and  we  have 


The  Harbor,   Liverpool. 

company  all  the  way  until  we  enter  the  mouth  of  the  Mersey 
(mer'zi)in  the  crowded  harbor  of  Liverpool,  and  anchor 
there  in  one  of  the  chief  commercial  ports  of  the  world. 

Liverpool  is  about  as  big  as  Boston ;  it  is  next  to  Lon- 
don the  chief  port  of  Great  Britain,  and  is  one  of  the  busi- 


MANUFACTURING   ENGLAND. 


65 


est  places  in  Europe.  We  land  at  the  magnificent  stone 
docks  which  wall  the  banks  of  the  Mersey  for  miles,  look- 
ing longingly  at  the  great  steamers  from  New  York,  which 
are  unloading  meat,  wheat,  and  other  American  products, 
and  taking  on  English  manufactured  goods  to  carry  back 
home.  See  that  ocean  greyhound  which  is  about  starting 
out !  We  might  go  on  board  and  within  less  than  a  week 
be  back  in  dear  old  America  !  We  hesitate  only  a  moment, 
however,  and  then  turn  our  eyes  toward  the  great  steamers 
from  Germany,  France,  Scandinavia,  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean ports,  remembering  the  many  strange  countries  of 
Europe  which  we  have  yet  to  see. 

We  stroll  about  the  docks.  Many  of  them  surround 
great  pools  into  which  the  ships  are  admitted  through 
water  gates,  for  it  is  often  difficult  to  unload  in  the  harbor 
on  account  of  the  great  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide  in  the 
Mersey.  Other  ships  use  floating  landing  stages  for  this 
reason,  the  floats  rising  and  falling  as  the  tide  comes  in 
and  goes  out. 

We  soon  leave  the  wharves  for  a  trip  through  the  city. 
We  visit  the  custom  house,  the  town  hall,  and  the  stock 
exchange,  and  then  take 
a  train  for  Stratford-on- 
Avon,  for  all  of  our 
party  are  eager  to  spend 
a  day  in  visiting  the 
birthplace  of  Shake- 
speare, the  great  poet 
and  dramatist.  We  stay 
over  night  here  at  the  old 
Red  Horse  Inn  where 
Washington  Irving  hved  when  he  was  in  Stratford,  and 
next  morning  wander  about  the  town,  visiting  the  house 


—  the  house  in  which  Shakespeare 
was  born." 


e^ 


ENGLAND. 


in  which  Shakespeare  was  born,  the  church  where  he  was 

buried,  and  the  cottage  in  which  he  courted  Ann  Hatha- 
way who  became  his 
wife.  In  the  after- 
noon we  drive  to  the 
old  castle  of  Kenil- 
worth,  only  a  few 
miles  away.  Thence 
we  go  into  Coventry, 
a  town  famous  for 
Kenilworth.  its  manufactures  of 

watches,  bicycles,  and  ribbons,   and  from  there  by  fast 

express  to  London. 


VIII.     LONDON  — THE   COMMERCIAL   CENTER 
OF   THE   WORLD. 


WE  start  out  this  morning  to  see  something  of  Lon- 
don. It  is  the  biggest  city  of  the  whole  world, 
bigger  than  any  two  capitals  of  continental  Europe,  or  both 
New  York  and  Chicago  combined.  It  has  more  people 
than  New  England,  so  many  that  it  forms  a  little  world 
of  its  own.  The  most  of  its  citizens  are  English,  but 
there  are  thousands  of  others  who  have  come  here  to 
live  and  do  business.  It  is  said  London  has  more  Scotch- 
men than  Edinburgh,  more  Irishmen  than  Dublin,  and 
more  Jews  than  the  Holy  Land.  It  has  a  vast  number 
of  French,  Germans,  and  Italians,  and  many  thousand 
Americans.  It  grows  so  fast  that  a  new  house  goes  up 
every  hour,  a  baby  is  born  every  six  minutes,  and  enough 
people  to  make  a  large  city  are  added  to  its  population 
every  year. 


LONDON.  6^ 

London  has  been  described  as  an  enormous  beehive  of 
humanity.  It  is  a  great  sea  of  bricks  and  mortar,  and  we 
are  appalled  in  our  attempts  to  comprehend  its  extent. 
We  might  climb  to  the  top  of  the  monument  in  the  center 
of  the  chief  business  section  and  look  over  the  great  city, 
but  we  could  not  see  it  all.  It  has  thousands  of  factories, 
which  cause  dense  clouds  of  smoke  to  hang  over  it.  The 
Thames,  which  flows  through  it,  sometimes  sends  up  fogs, 
which  at  certain  seasons  are  so  thick  that  the  people  can 
hardly  see  their  way  through  the  streets.  Some  of  the 
fogs  have  a  yellowish  tint,  and  in  them  you  seem  to  be 
looking  through  spectacles  of  yellow  smoked  glass. 

How  long  do  you  think  it  would  take  to  explore  the  city 
on  foot }  A  week  }  More  than  that.  A  month  }  More 
than  that.  Perhaps  a  year.-*  More  than  that.  If  we 
should  walk  day  and  night,  not  stopping  a  minute,  we  could 
not  go  through  all  its  streets  in  a  year.  Indeed,  the  streets 
are  so  long  that  if  they  were  placed  end  to  end,  beginning 
at  the  Thames,  they  would  reach  across  Europe,  making  a 
paved  walk  walled  with  houses  through  France,  Germany, 
and  Russia,  over  the  Ural  Mountains  and  the  Highlands 
of  Thibet,  and  clear  across  China  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

We  might  learn  something  about  London  by  a  trip  down 
the  Thames  which  flows  through  it  on  its  way  to  the  sea. 
The  city  is  sixty  miles  inland  on  this  wide,  deep,  and 
smooth-flowing  river,  so  situated  that  it  is  the  natural  out- 
*let  for  the  rich  Thames  valley,  and  so  connected  with 
other  parts  of  England  by  railways  and  canals  that  it 
forms  the  best  port  for  the  shipment  of  all  sorts  of  English 
manufactures  to  Europe  and  the  other  continents,  and  the 
place  from  which  goods  from  abroad  can  most  easily  be 
sent  out  to  all  parts  of  England.  ^- 

London  is  the  greatest  commercial  port  of  the  world, 


68  ENGLAND. 

and  the  Thames  has  always  thousands  of  ships  anchored 
within  it.  The  river  for  miles  is  lined  with  wharves,  and 
there  are  so  many  vessels  in  some  places  that  you  can 
hardly  make  out  the  houses  behind  them.  Standing  upon 
London  Bridge,  we  see  a  forest  of  masts  extending  on 
and  on  until  our  eyes  are  lost  among  them  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  in  the  inclosed  docks  near  by,  the  rigging  of 
the  vessels  rises  high  among  the  chimneys  of  the  great 
warehouses  surrounding  them. 

We  shall  get  an  idea  of  the  immensity  of  London  by  a 
visit  to  the  grain  and  provision  docks,  where  Dame  Com- 
merce is  kept  busy  unloading  food  for  its  gigantic  stomach. 
They  are  taking  off  live  cattle  and  sheep  by  the  thousands, 
and  discharging  shiploads  of  beef  which  have  come  across 
the  ocean  from  the  United  States  in  cold  storage  chambers. 
London  eats  so  much  beef  every  year  that  the  cattle  required 
to  supply  it,  if  driven  along  close  together  in  single  file, 
would  make  a  drove  as  long  as  the  distance  from  New 
York  to  a  hundred  miles  beyond  Omaha.  The  city  eats 
so  much  mutton  that  vast  factories  have  grown  up  in  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand,  and  Argentina  to  freeze  mutton  for 
its  markets.  The  mutton  is  frozen  hard  before  it  is  put 
into  the  cold  chambers  of  the  ships,  and  when  it  reaches 
here  is  thawed  out  and  sold. 

In  the  fish  markets  there  are  hundreds  of  vessels,  for 
London  eats  more  than  one  million  pounds  of  fish  every 
day ;  and  there  are  many  great  oyster  farms  all  along  the 
Thames  which  supply  the  city  with  oysters.  The  peo- 
ple of  Denmark  would  suffer  if  it  were  not  for  the  money 
they  get  from  the  butter  which  spreads  London's  bread, 
and  northern  France  receives  much  of  its  income  by 
supplying  London  with  poultry  and  eggs.  Canada  and 
the  United  States  send  it  vast  quantities  of  cheese,  and 


LONDON. 


69 


indeed  almost  every  part  of  the  world  finds  something  to 
do  towards  supplying  food  for  it. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  good  weather  during  our 
travels  in  London.  To-day  the  Thames  is  glistening  like 
diamonds  under  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the  dingy  build- 
ings about  us  look  less  somber  than  they  did  last  night  in 
the  fog.  We  leave 
our  hotel  at  Trafal- 
gar Square,  near  the 
great  granite  col- 
umn with  the  bronze 
statue  of  Admiral 
Nelson  on  top,  and 
walk  down  to  the 
Strand  at  Charing 
Cross,  where  we  get 
an  omnibus  for  Lon- 
don Bridge.  This 
will  take  us  through 
the  very  center  of 
business  London. 

How  narrow  the 
streets  are  and  how 
crowded !  They  are 
so     thronged    from 


We  climb  up." 


morning  till  night,  that  there  is  no  room  for  car  lines,  and 
those  who  ride  must  go  in  cabs,  carriages,  or  omnibuses. 
We  climb  up  and  take  our  places  on  the  knifeboard  in  front 
on  each  side  of  the  driver,  who  points  out  the  sights  as  we 
go.  He  is  a  jolly,  rosy-cheeked,  man  in  a  tall  hat  and 
rough  clothes,  who  uses  his  h's  in  a  way  that  seems  strange 
to  us.  He  calls  "he"  "e,"  and  "horses"  "osses,"  and 
speaks  so  queerly  that  we  hardly  understand  half  he  says. 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  5 


70 


ENGLAND. 


How  interesting  it  is !  We  are  high  up  above  the 
crowds  that  are  hurrying  in  all  directions ;  while  a  tangle 
of  hansoms,  four-wheeled  carriages,  drays,  and  omnibuses 
reaches  on  and  on,  filling  the  streets  as  far  as  we  can 
see.  The  buildings  on  each  side  of  us  are  dingy  and 
old.  There  are  few  tall  structures  like  our  so-called  "  sky 
scrapers "  of  New  York,  and  were  it  not  for  the  dense 
throng  of  people,   we  could  not  believe  we   are   in   the 

world's    chief     busi- 
ness center. 

We  are  traveling 
through  a  part  of  old 
London  where  many 
of  the  houses  were 
built  generations  ago, 
and  where  the  streets 
are  narrow  and 
crooked.  Now  we 
are  passing  through 
Fleet  Street  by  the 
great  publishing 
houses.  See  the  boys 
and  girls  coming  out 
with  bundles  of 
newspapers  under  their  arms.  The  girls  are  bareheaded, 
and  they  cry  out  the  papers  almost  as  loudly  as  the  boys. 
It  is  here  that  the  chief  London  dailies  are  printed. 

Now  we  are  going  past  Saint  Paul's  Cathedral !  What  an 
enormous  building  it  is.  It  is  one  of  the  grandest  churches 
of  the  world.  It  is  twelve  o'clock,  and  its  great  bell  is 
striking  the  hour.  That  bell  is  tolled  only  at  the  death  of 
one  of  the  royal  family  of  England,  but  it  strikes  the  hours, 
and  its  rich  mellow  tones  can  be  heard  far  out  of  the  city. 


Saint  Paul's  Cathedral. 


LONDON.  71 


Leaving  Saint  Paul's,  we  pass  through  Cheapside  and 
Poultry  to  Lombard  Street,  where  we  get  down  and  walk 
about  through  the  alleys  lined  with  banks  and  business 
houses.  We  are  now  in  the  money  center  of  London.  We 
walk  through  Cornhill,  Lombard,  and  Threadneedle  Streets, 
seeing  banking  signs  everywhere.  The  buildings  are  usually 
of  five  or  six  stories.  They  are  substantial,  but  not  so  large 
as  the  great  office  buildings  of  New  York  and  Chicago. 
We  see  many  well-dressed  men  about  the  stock  exchange, 
and  realize  that  this  is  the  chief  money  market  of  the 
whole  world.  There  are  men  here  interested  in  under- 
takings all  over  the  globe.  Railroads  in  South  America, 
diamond  -mines  in  Africa,  silk  factories  in  China,  sugar 
plantations  in  Cuba,  vast  sheep  farms  in  Australia,  and 
gold,  silver,  and  copper  mines  everywhere,  are  worked 
with  capital  supplied  from  this  part  of  London.  These 
buildings  are  filled  with  offices.  They  are  occupied  only 
by  day ;  at  night  they  will  be  deserted  by  all  but  the  carle- 
takers,  for, the  rich  men  and  their  clerks  will  then  be  in 
their  homes  in  other  parts  of  the  city. 

But  what  is  that  vast  structure  of  somber  gray  stone  ? 
It  covers  eight  acres,  and  is  the  biggest  building  of  this 
part  of  London.  It  looks  like  a  prison.  There  is  a  guard 
at  the  door  in  a  long  scarlet  gown  and  a  velvet  cocked 
hat.  He  has  a  staff  in  his  hand,  and  at  first  we  wonder  if 
he  is  not  some  great  money  king  and  whether  the  staff  is 
his  scepter.  That  is  the  Bank  of  England,  one  of  the 
most  famous  banks  of  the  world.  It  has  charge  of  the 
government  funds,  and  also  does  so  much  private  business 
that  it  often  has  as  much  as  a  half  billion  dollars  worth  of 
gold  and  other  valuable  things  in  its  vaults.  We  have 
a  permit  from  a  banker,  which  we  show  to  the  scarlet- 
gov/ned  guard,  and  he  waves  us  to  enter. 


72 


ENGLAND. 


"That  is  the  Bank  of  England." 

We  first  come  into  a  large  square  room  surrounded  by 
counters,  behind  which  clerks  are  giving  out  gold.  They 
are  not  counting  the  coins  as  we  do,  but  are  weighing 
them  on  scales  like  those  used  by  our  grocers.  See  that 
man  there  scooping  up  gold  just  as  a  grocer  scoops  up  sugar. 
He  knows  exactly  how  many  coins  go  to  the  ounce  or  the 
pound,  and  in  giving  out  large  sums  can  count  more  easily 
by  weight  than  by  numbers.  For  this  reason  the  coins 
used  by  the  bank  must  be  perfect,  and  none  that  are  much 
worn  or  chipped  will  be  taken.  Every  coin  which  the 
bank  receives  is  weighed  separately  to  see  that  it  has  just 
the  right  amount  of  gold  in  it ;  but  this  is  done  by  machines 
which  work  very  rapidly,  automatically  throwing  out  the 
light  coins.  There  are  ten  such  machines  in  the  bank,  each 
of  which  can  weigh  six  thousand  pieces  of  gold  a  day. 

Quitting  the  bank,  we  visit  the  Royal  Exchange  near 
by,  and  then,  cross  over  to  the  Mansion  House  where  the 


LONDON. 


n 


Lord  Mayor  lives.  We  next  visit  the  Tower  of  London, 
which  for  years  was  the  prison  and  place  of  execution  for 
the  celebrated  criminals  and  traitors  of  England.  It  is  a 
gloomy  building  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  some  of  it 
almost  one  thousand  years  old.  A  quaintly  attired  warder 
acts  as  our  guide,  taking  us  from  room  to  room,  upstairs 


^r* 


%»v 


fl^iakAii5?ai;!^«.-^  ' 


-^^jMMfi'^-^^^^ 


■  "We  next  visit  the  Tower  of  London." 

and  down,  and  making  us  shudder  as  he  tells  the  horrible 
stories  of  the  suffering  and  death  which  have  occurred 
within  it.  He  shows  us  Queen  Elizabeth's  armory,  where 
are  all  sorts  of  weapons  and  instruments  of  torture,  and 
lets  us  handle  an  ax  which  has  cut  off  the  heads  of  some 
of  England's  great  nobles. 

In  another  room  we  see  the  crown  jewels  of  England. 
They  are  kept  in  glass  cases  inside  iron  cages  and  carefully 
guarded.  That  crown  there  which  fairly  blazes  with 
precious  stones  was  once  Queen  Victoria's.  It  has  two 
thousand,  seven  hundred  and  eighty-three  diamonds  in  it, 
and  the  large  ruby  in  front  was  worn  by  Henry  V  on  his 


74 


ENGLAND. 


helmet  in  one  of  his  battles  with  the  French,  hundreds  of 
years  ago.  The  great  stone  near  it  is  the  celebrated  Koh-i- 
noor,  one  of  the  largest  diamonds  known.  It  once  belonged 
to  an  Indian  rajah,  and  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
English  when  they  conquered  him. 

From  the  Tower  we  visit  the  Tower  Bridge  over  the 
Thames,  and  thence  walk  on  to  London  Bridge,  the  busi- 
est of  all  the  twenty  bridges  which  cross  the  Thames  in 
the  city.  The  bridge  is  of  granite,  and  the  bronze  lamp 
posts  upon  it  were  cast  from  cannon  which  the  EngUsh 


London  Bridge. 

had  captured  in  battle.  We  stand  on  the  bridge  watch- 
ing the  throng  of  people  and  vehicles  which  is  always 
moving  over  this  way  and  that.  The  Thames  is  filled 
with  shipping.  There  are  steamers  carrying  passengers 
up  and  down  stream,  ^nd  we  are  told  by  the  policemen 
that  we,  if  we  wish,  can  ride  back  on  one  of  them  to 
Charing  Cross  for  a  penny.  We  decide,  however,  to  return 
by  the  underground  railroad. 


LONDON. 


75 


"We  .  .  .  return  by  the  underground  railroad." 

The  streets  in  the  heart  of  London  are  so  thronged  that 
people  in  a  hurry  travel  under  ground.  Great  tunnels 
have  been  dug  out  under  the  houses  and  streets,  below  the 
gas  pipes  and  sewers.  There  are  railroads  in  the  tunnels, 
and  fast  express  trains  fly  along  through  them,  stopping  at 
the  openings  which  have  been  made  here  and  there  with 
stairs  to  the  streets.  A  trip  costs  but  four  cents,  and  the 
cars  are  so  convenient  that  the  trains  annually  carry  many 
million  passengers.  The  tunnels  are  lighted  by  electricity. 
They  are  walled  with  brick,  and  are  so  well  ventilated  that 
we  find  riding  in  them  more  pleasant  than  jolting  along  on 
the  omnibus. 


76 


ENGLAND. 


IX.     THE    HOUSES   OF   PARLIAMENT 
ENGLAND    IS   GOVERNED. 


HOW 


PUT  on  your  best  clothes  this  morning.  We  are  to  go 
through  the  fashionable  parts  of  London.  We  shall 
drive  in  the  chief  shopping  sections,  take  a  turn  in  Hyde 
Park,  and  later  visit  Parliament,  and  perhaps  meet  the  chief 
officials  of  the  great  British  Empire. 
We  go  in  couples,  each  couple  taking 
a  hansom,  a  queer  two-wheeled  cab 
entirely  open  in  front.  The  driver 
has  a  seat  fastened  to  the  back  of  the 
roof,  and  directs  his  horses  with  lines 
which  are  high  over  our  heads. 

We  leave  Trafalgar  Square  for  a 
ride  through  Regent  Street,  Ox- 
ford, and  Piccadilly.  The  build- 
ings are  cleaner  and  better  than 
farther  down  in  the  city,  and 
the  stores  are  filled  with  fine 
goods  of  every  description.  We 
stop  here  and  there  to  buy  pres- 
ents or  things  we  need  on  our  > 
tour ;  and  then  go  on  into  Hyde 
Park,  by  the  great  statue  of 
Wellington  cast  from  twelve  French  cannon,  some  of  which 
were  captured  from  Napoleon  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

How  beautiful  the  park  is  !  The  drives  are  through 
groves  of  magnificent  trees  and  thick  velvety  lawns  of  the 
greenest  green.  We  go  to  the  Serpentine,  a  long  winding 
lake  where,  before  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  after 
eight  in  the  evening,  crowds  of  boys  and  men  may  be  seen 


Nelson  Monument,  Trafal- 
gar Square. 


HOW  ENGLAND   IS  GOVERNED.  JJ 

swimming  and  plunging  about  in  the  water.  The  time  for 
bathing  is  limited  by  the  raising  and  lowering  of  a  flag,  the 
park  authorities  setting  aside  an  hour  twice  a  day  for  the 
sport. 

Not  far  from  the  Serpentine  is  Rotten  Row,  where  fash- 
ionable London  rides  every  afternoon.  The  usual  riding 
hour  is  in  the  afternoon  from  twelve  till  two,  when  hun- 


Rotten  Row. 

dreds  of  finely  dressed  ladies  and  gentlemen  and  boys  and 
girls  may  be  seen  on  their  spirited  steeds,  walking,  trot- 
ting, or  galloping  along. 

After  looking  at  the  magnificent  houses  near  Hyde 
Park,  we  are  driven  on  to  the  palaces  of  St.  James  and 
Buckingham,  two  of  the  residences  of  the  king  of  England, 
where  he  sometimes  holds  his  levees  or  receptions.  The 
palaces  are  enormous  structures  more  like  our  great  gov- 
ernment department  buildings  at  Washington  than  ordi- 
nary residences.  They  face  St.  James  Park,  and  each 
palace  has  a  beautiful  garden  about  it. 

At  the  times  of  royal  receptions  richly  dressed  ladies, 
gentlemen  in  uniforms  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  and  serv- 


yS  ENGLAND. 

ants  in  gorgeous  liveries  wearing  knee  breeches,  silk 
stockings,  and  powdered  hair,  may  be  seen  going  into  the 
palaces.  Then  the  mounted  band  of  the  Life  Guards 
plays  outside,  and  gay  carriages,  driven  by  coachmen  wear- 
ing curled  wigs  and  three-cornered  hats,  dash  through  the 
streets,  the  policemen  keeping  the  crowds  back  from  the 
roadway. 

Had  we  the  proper  introductions,  we  might  enter  and  be 
presented  to  the  ruler  of  England.  We  should  probably 
find  him  only  a  man  after  all ;  and  if  he  should  tell  us 
just  what  his  powers  are,  we  should  learn  that,  although  he 
is  a  king,  he  has  little  more  authority  over  his  people  than 
the  President  of  the  United  States  has  over  us. 

The  government  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  is  a  limited  monarchy ;  that  is,  its  king 
can  rule  only  as  the  constitution  and  laws  prescribe.  The 
laws  are  fixed  by  Parliament,  a  body  of  men  representing 
the  people,  much  like  our  Congress.  Parliament  directs 
what  the  king  shall  do  ;  it  directs  just  what  taxes  shall 
be  collected,  how  the  money  shall  be  spent,  and  it  makes 
all  the  laws  for  the  people.  For  this  reason  the  English 
say  they  have  a  country  as  free  as  our  own,  although  ours 
is  a  republic. 

But  let  us  visit  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  They  are  in 
Westminster  Palace,  a  magnificent  building  covering  more 
than  twice  as  much  ground  as  the  Capitol  at  Washington, 
situated  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Thames.  We  call  up 
to  our  cabman  through  the  little  hole  in  the  roof  to  go 
through  St.  James's  Park,  and  down  Whitehall  Street  to 
the  river.  We  dismount  in  front  of  the  palace,  but  are 
stopped  at  the  gates  by  one  of  the  policemen  on  guard, 
until  we  show  him  our  pass  from  the  American  Minister. 
We  find  other  policemen  in  the  halls,  who  wear  uniforms 


HOW  ENGLAND   IS  GOVERNED.  79 

and  tall  helmets,  and  look  very  imposing.  The  door- 
keepers also  wear  uniforms,  and  each  of  the  messengers 
has  a  brass  medal  as  big  around  as  a  teacup,  with  a  lion 
and  unicorn  upon  it,  on  his  breast. 


Westminster  Palace. 

We  are  taken  through  room  after  room.  There  are 
more  than  a  thousand  in  the  palace.  We  visit  the  library 
and  then  go  on  into  the  House  of  Commons,  and  sit  down 
in  the  galleries  surrounding  the  great  rectangular  pit 
where  the  House  meets.  The  walls  of  the  pit  are  of 
richly  carved  English  oak,  darkened  by  age,  and  the  roof 
is  composed  of  panels  of  stained  glass  through  which  the 
light  comes. 

Cast  your  eyes  into  the  pit.  There,  on  those  long,  cush- 
ioned benches,  sit  the  men  who,  elected  by  the  people,  really 
rule  England.  Nearly  all  are  dressed  in  black  clothes,  and 
each  has  a  tall  silk  hat  on  his  head,  or  on  his  knees,  or  on 
the  seat  beside  him.     There  are  no  desks,  and  many  of 


So 


ENGLAND. 


the  members  are  writing  on  papers  which  they  rest  on 
their  hats. 

Notice  that  man  in  the.  long  black  gown  sitting  in  the 
pulpit  at  the  end  of  the  chamber.  How  white  his  hair  is 
and  how  curly ;  it  is  done  up  in  a  queue  at  the  back,  and 
it  surrounds  his  rosy  face  and  falls  down  on  his  breast. 
Still,  the  man's  face  is  unwrinkled,  as  are  those  of  the 
other   white-haired    men  who    are   writing   at   that   table 


"  —  the  great  rectangular  pit  where  the  House  meets." 

below  him.  They  seem  to  be  young  men  notwithstanding 
their  hair.  You  are  right.  They  are  young.  They  are 
the  speaker  and  clerks  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
custom  requires  they  wear  black  gowns  and  gray  wigs,  as 
was  done  by  judges  and  some  other  officials  of  our  coun- 
try in  early  days. 

There  a  member  rises  to  speak.  He  uses  a  conversa- 
tional tone  and  his  fellows  are  quietly  listening.  >{ow  he 
is  growing  excited.     His  words  stir  up  the  whole  House. 


HOW  ENGLAND   IS  GOVERNED.  8l 

There  are  cries  of  Hear !  Hear !  and  No !  No !  from 
all  parts.  The  Speaker  calls  Order  !  Three  other  mem- 
bers have  jumped  to  their  feet.  They  cry  out  their  objec- 
tions, and  for  a  time  there  is  quite  a  hubbub  in  the  great 
pit  below  us.  Ordinarily  the  House  of  Commons  is  more 
quiet  than  our  House  of  Representatives,  but  when  im- 
portant questions  come  up,  the  members  often  lose  their 
dignified  ways  and  shout  at  each  other. 

But  let  us  go  into  the  House  of  Peers,  where  the  chief 
nobles  of  the  United  Kingdom  have  seats.  The  English 
people  are  divided  up  into  peers  and  commoners,  largely 
according  to  birth.  There  are  about  six  hundred  peers  and 
something  like  thirty-five  million  commoners.  The  peers 
are  of  the  five  orders  of  nobility :  dukes,  marquises,  earls, 
viscounts,  and  barons.  There  are  also  other  orders  whose 
members  have  only  the  titles  of  Honorable  and  Sir.  In 
England  the  eldest  son  usually  succeeds  to  the  rank  of 
his  father,  while  the  other  children  are  only  commoners, 
although  they  sometimes  by  courtesy  have  minor  titles. 

We  find  the  House  of  Lords  much  like  the  House  of 
Commons,  save  that  it  is  more  quiet  and  prosy.  There  are 
about  six  hundred  members.  Some  became  members  by 
birth,  some  were  appointed  by  the  king,  others  were  elected 
for  life  or  for  shorter  periods,  and  some  are  bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

Leaving  Westminster  Palace,  we  visit  Westminster  Abbey 
near  by,  to  see  the  statues  and  memorials  of  the  English 
monarchs,  military  and  naval  heroes,  scientists,  and  liter- 
ary men.  We  admire  the  monuments  of  the  kings,  but 
are  more  interested  in  those  erected  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
the  great  philosopher,  to  James  Watt,  the  father  of  the 
steam  engine,  and  to  such  writers  as  Addison,  Goldsmith, 
Dickens,  and  Thackeray.    We  stay  some  time  in  the  "  Poets' 


82 


ENGLAND. 


Corner,"  before  the  tombs  or  monuments  of  Milton,  Chaucer, 
Shakespeare,  and  other  great  poets,  and  also  before  the 
monument  of  Longfellow,  who  is  as  much  loved  in  Eng- 
land as  in  our  own  country. 

On  our  way  back  to  the  hotel  we  drive  by  the  chief 
public  buildings,  visiting  several  of  them  to  learn  more 
about  the  government.      We  find  that  the  king  has  his 


Westminster  Abbey. 

Cabinet  just  as  our  President  has,  but  while  our  President 
need  not  act  on  the  advice  of  his  Cabinet,  the  king  must 
act  on  the  advice  of  his  Cabinet  if  it  is  approved  by  the 
House  of  Commons.  Each  of  the  king's  ministers  has  a 
great  department,  with  thousands  of  clerks  under  him. 
We  visit  the  Treasury,  which  has  to  do  with  the  finances 
of  the  empire,  and  then  enter  the  great  buildings  which 
contain  the  Home,  Foreign,  Colonial,  and  Indian  Offices, 
where  we  get  some  idea  of  the  enormous  size  and  impor- 
tance of  the  British  Empire. 


HOW  ENGLAND  IS  GOVERNED.  83 

The  United  Kingdom  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  territory 
governed  by  the  British  people.  They  have  colonies  on 
every  continent,  and  islands  in  almost  every  sea.  The 
colonies  and  the  United  Kingdom  make  up  the  British 
Empire,  which  contains,  all  told,  about  eighty  times  as 
much  land  as  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  altogether 
almost  one  fifth  of  the  land  surface  of  the  globe,  inhabited 
by  about  one  fourth  of  all  the  people  upon  it.  It  is  the 
greatest  empire  of  the  whole  world,  and  of  all  the  world's 
peoples  the  English  own  the  most  land. 

We  might  travel  around  the  world,  landing  only  at 
English  ports.  We  could  cross  the  Atlantic  to  Montreal, 
and  thence  go  by  railroad  to  Vancouver  where  there  are 
steamers  which  would  land  us  in  Hong  Kong,  an  English 
island  off  the  coast  of  South  China.  From  there  we  could 
steam  on  to  Singapore,  another  English  possession,  and 
thence  north  by  way  of  Rangoon  in  Burmah  to  Calcutta, 
the  capital  of  British  India.  From  Calcutta  there  is  a  rail- 
road to  Bombay,  where  other  English  ships  would  take  us 
over  the  Indian  Ocean  to  the  Suez  Canal,  stopping  at  Aden, 
a  British  port  in  Arabia.  Egypt,  which  is  under  British 
protection,  would  be  on  our  left  as  we  went  through  the 
canal,  and  in  crossing  the  Mediterranean  we  should  call  at 
Malta,  and  go  by  the  English  rock  of  Gibraltar  out  into 
the  Atlantic,  and  thence  northward  to  Liverpool.  This 
tour  would  leave  out  the  vast  possessions  of  the  British 
in  Africa  and  Australasia,  as  well  as  other  important  colo^ 
nies,  including  islands  in  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and  Indian 
oceans. 

These  vast  territories  are  all  governed  more  or  less  from 
the  Colonial  and  Indian  Offices  in  London,  although  some 
of  them,  such  as  New  Zealand,  Australia,  and  Canada,  have 
parliaments  of  their  own.      Each  colonial  country  has  a 


84  ENGLAND. 

great  trade  with  Great  Britain,  and  does  much  toward 
making  the  English  rank  with  ourselves  as  the  greatest  of 
the  commercial  and  manufacturing  nations. 

We  visit  the  Departments  of  War  and  Navy.  A  large 
army  is  needed  to  keep  so  many  people  in  order,  and  to 
defend  their  many  possessions.  The  EngHsh  must  have 
war  ships  to  guard  their  enormous  commerce,  and  their 
gunboats  are  to  be  seen  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

We  are  more  and  more  impressed  with  the  greatness  of 
the  British  Empire  as  we  go  from  building  to  building, 
and  from  office  to  office.  In  the  Postal  Department  we 
learn  something  of  the  intelligence  of  the  English  from  the 
vast  amount  of  mail  they  send  and  receive.  We  see  that 
they  must  be  thrifty  from  their  savings  banks,  which  are 
connected  with  every  post  office,  and  where  one  can 
deposit  as  Httle  as  twenty-five  cents  at  a  time.  Many 
school  children  put  their  money  into  such  banks,  and  nearly 
all  the  depositors  are  poor  people;  but  their  deposits  amount 
to  more  than  six  hundred  million  dollars. 

We  ask  about  the  telegraph  and  telephone  systems,  which 
are  managed  by  the  government  in  connection  with  the 
post  offices,  and  are  told  that  there  are  telegraph  lines  and 
telephones  to  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  also  cables  run- 
ning under  the  Channel  to  the  Continent,  and  to  most  of 
the  colonies.  We  ask  the  cable  clerk  to  send  a  message 
across  the  Atlantic  for  us.  He  gives  us  a  blank,  and  we 
each  write  a  dispatch.  A  few  minutes  later  our  words 
are  flying  through  the  wires,  up  hill  and  down,  on  their 
journey  of  two  thousand  and  more  miles  over  the  bed  of 
the  ocean  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  thence  through  the  land 
wires  to  our  homes.  They  will  arrive  there  before  we  can 
reach  our  hotel,  and  our  parents  will  know  we  are  safe, 
happy,  and  well. 


RURAL   FRANCE. 


85 


X.     RURAL   FRANCE. 


w 


E  are  in  France  this  morn- 
ing. We  landed  some  days 
ago,  and  are  now  leisurely  trav- 
eling from  city  to  city  and 
village  to  village  through  one 
of  the  most  interesting  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  How  pleas- 
ant it  is  to  be  again  upon 
land !  We  shall  never  for- 
get our  trip  across  the 
Channel.  It  took  us  two 
hours  on  the  railroad  from 
London  to  Dover,  where  the 
English  Channel  is  narrow- 
est and  where  we  got  an 
express  boat  which  carried  us 
across  to  Calais  in  an  hour. 
But  such  an  hour!  We  never 
thought  so  much  misery  could  be 
crowded  into  sixty  short  minutes.  We  were  rolled  and 
pitched  about  by  the  waves  even  more  than  on  our  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic.  We  could  not  walk  upon  deck,  and 
were  seasick  all  the  way  over. 

We  spent  but  a  few  hours  in  Calais  (see  map,  p.  103), 
going  first  to  the  customhouse  to  open  our  trunks,  that  the 
officials  might  see  we  had  no  goods  for  sale.  We  visited 
the  shipyards,  watched  the  French  women  making  lace, 
and  looked  at  the  fortifications  built  to  defend  the  port  in 
the  event  of  a  war  between  England  and  France.  For  a 
similar  reason  the  English  have  fortifications  at  Dover. 

CARP.    EUROPK  —  6 


86  FRANCE. 

We  took  a  train  at  the  station,  not  far  from  the  boat, 
and  since  then  have  been  traveling  by  rail  from  one 
place  to  another.  How  different  it  is  from  anything  we 
have  yet  seen  !  The  signs  on  the  stations  are  strange. 
They  are  printed  in  French,  and  we  have  to  translate  the 
advertisements  before  we  know  what  they  mean  Our 
fellow    passengers    speak   a   strange    language,  gesturing 


"We  spent  but  a  few  hours  in  Calais." 

much  as  they  talk.  We  thought  we  knew  something  of 
French,  but  these  people  speak  so  fast  we  cannot  make 
out  the  words.  The  conductor  comes  to  the  door,  and 
touching  his  cap,  calls  out  something  we  can  hardly  under- 
stand, for  he  runs  .his  words  all  together;  but  the  French 
passengers  are  showing  their  tickets,  and  we  do  the  same. 
Listen  to  the  crowd  at  the  stations  !  They  are  all  jabber- 
ing in  French,  and  what  really  seems  strangest,  is  that  the 


RURAL  FRANCE. 


87 


little  children  are  speaking  this  language  as  easily  as  we 
do  our  own. 

How  polite  every  one  is,  and  how  jolly !  Even  the  boys 
take  off  their  hats  when  we  ask  them  a  question.  Men 
shake  hands  when  they  meet,  and  again  when  they  part, 
and  boys  often  kiss  the  hands  of  their  relatives  when  they 
greet  them  at  the  cars.  Over  there  are  two  men  embrac- 
ing each  other.  They  kiss  on  the  cheeks,  each  pressing 
one  kiss  on  each  cheek  of  his  fellow.  Such  salutations 
are  common  in  France. 

The  French  are  fond  of  society.  We  see  women  chatting 
and  laughing  as  they  sit  with  their  knitting  outside  their 


" — women  chatting  and  laughing." 

houses.  There  are  family  parties  about  the  tables  in  the 
parks  and  in  the  streets  in  front  of  the  cafes,  playing 
dominoes  or  other  games,  while  they  drink  wine,  chocolate, 
coffee,  or  lemonade.     They  seem  to  enjoy  themselves  very 


88  ,  FRANCE. 

much.  Many  are  reading  the  papers,  for  the  French  are 
intelligent  and  have  all  sorts  of  schools,  as  we  shall  see 
farther  on. 

But  there,  the  bell  rings !  The  train  is  leaving  the 
station,  and  that  ring  is  the  notice  to  start.  We  are 
rapidly  moving  over  the  country.  How  comfortable  it  is ! 
France  has  a  good  railroad  system  connecting  its  cities 
and  towns  with  one  another  and  with  all  parts  of  Europe. 

See  the  woman  there  at  the  road  crossing  !  She  has  a 
little  red  flag  in  her  hand,  which  she  waves  at  the  engineer 
as  he  passes.  She  blows  a  horn  to  warn  people  that  the 
cars  are  coming,  and  at  the  same  time  puts  down  the  bars 
to  keep  them  from  crossing  the  track. 

How  fine  the  farms  are,  but  how  small.  France  is 
largely  composed  of  small  farms.  It  is  divided  up  into 
garden  patches,  and  the  most  of  it  belongs  to  the  common 
people.  In  the  United  Kingdom,  which  we  have  just  left, 
the  most  of  the  lands  were  owned  by  twenty  thousand  men, 
composed  chiefly  of  the  rich  and  the  nobility.  France  is 
only  a  little  less  than  twice  as  large  as  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  but  it  has  millions  of  landed  proprietors.  Nearly 
every  farmer  has  his  own  bit  of  land,  and  even  those  who 
work  for  others  own  several  acres  apiece,  which  they  tend 
between  times.  This  is  a  good  thing  for  France,  for  every 
owner  feels  that  a  part  of  the  country  belongs  to  him,  and 
he  is  interested  in  its  welfare.  The  people  are  fond  of 
their  country,  and  do  not  emigrate  like  the  English,  Irish, 
and  Germans.  They  think  no  other  place  equal  to  France, 
and  hence  stay  at  home ;  many  foreigners  come  into 
France  every  year,  but  few  Frenchmen  go  out.  The  peo- 
ple farm  their  lands  well  and  are  thrifty. 

The  French  are  noted  for  their  thrift.  Nearly  every 
one  of  them  has  money  in  the  bank  or  in  a  stocking  hidden 


RURAL  FRANCE. 


89 


away  somewhere  at  home,  and  they  are  often  said  to  be 
the  richest  people  of  the  world.  They  have  learned  how 
to  use  food  materials  so  economically  that  it  is  said  they 
could  take  what  we  waste,  and  by  their  knowledge  of 
cooking,  live  upon  it.  The  common  people  we  see  dress 
plainly  and  look  healthy  and  happy. 


"The  road  is  as  hard  as  stone." 

Now  we  are  traveling  through  one  of  the  wheat  regions. 
There  are  many  such  in  the  northern  and  central  parts  of 
the  country.  Besides  wheat,  the  French  produce  quantities 
of  oats,  rye,  barley,  and  corn,  as  well  as  sugar  beets,  pota- 
toes, and  other  root  crops.  They  have  orchards  of  apples, 
peaches,  and  pears  in  the  north,  and  in  the  south  groves 
of  lemon,  orange,  olive,  and  mulberry  trees.  There  are 
many  provinces  in  which  we  can  go  for  miles  and  not  be 
out  of  sight  of  the  vineyards,  for  France  is  the  chief  wine- 
producing  country  of  Europe. 


90  FRANCE. 

But  let  us  leave  the  train  and  visit  some  of  the  farms. 
The  road  is  as  hard  as  stone  and  as  smooth  as  a  floor.  We 
ride  along  under  the  shade  of  the  poplars  and  other  trees 
that  line  the  roadsides.     It  is  early  morning,  but  the  people 


In  the  Fields. 

are  already  at  work.  The  women  are  laboring  along  with 
the  men  in  the  fields.  Some  of  them  are  bareheaded,  some 
have  bright  handkerchiefs  about  their  heads,  and  some 
wear  sunbonnets.  They  do  all  sorts  of  light  work.  There 
is  one  weeding  among  those  sugar  beets,  and  here  is 
another  cutting  the  thistles  out  of  this  field  of  green  wheat. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  road  a  man  is  plowing;  he 
wears  a  cap  and  a  suit  of  blue  cotton,  with  a  long  shirt  or 
blouse  buttoned  down  in  front  outside  his  trousers ;  he  has 


RURAL  FRANCE.  9 1 

on  wooden  clogs  or  sabots.  In  that  field  farther  on  three 
little  boys  are  planting  something.  They  are  bareheaded, 
but  they  laugh  as  they  work,  and  say :  "  Bon  jour  "  (boN 
zhoor)  or  "good  day,"  to  us  as  we  pass. 

But  where  are  the  farmhouses  and  barns.?  There  are 
none  in  the  fields.  The  farm  people  of  France  live  in 
villages,  and  go  out  from  them  to  their  work.  There  is  a 
village  now  about  three  miles  away.  Let  us  go  to  it. 
How  different  -it  is  from  our  small  country  towns!  The 
houses  and  barns  are  all  mixed  together.  They  are  of  one 
and  two  stories,  built  of  stone  or  of  mud  mixed  with  straw, 
and  roofed  with  red  tiles  or  straw  thatch.  The  walls  are 
whitewashed,  except  near  the  ground,  where  there  is  a 
black  coating  of  tar  to  keep  out  the  damp.  Each  house 
has  a  stable  and  o'utsheds  about  it,  and  the  stable  is  often 
a  part  of  the  house,  the  cow  stalls  being  next  to  the  bed- 
room or  kitchen.  Nearly  every  house  has  a  rabbit  yard 
connected  with  it ;  rabbits  are  as  common  here  as  chickens 
are  in  our  villages. 

One  of  the  farmers  invites  us  to  enter  his  home.  He 
takes  us  into  the  kitchen,  which  is  the  chief  room  of  the 
house.  It  has  a  brick  floor ;  there  is  a  great  fireplace  at 
the  end  and  a  bed  in  one  corner.  .  Hams  and  sides  of 
bacon  hang  from  the  ceiling,  and  there  are  some  prints  on 
the  walls.  Our  farmer  wears  a  cap,  a  blue  blouse,  blue 
trousers,  and  wooden  shoes.  His  wife  has  on  dark  clothes 
and  a  white  cap.  She  has  a  half-finished  garment  in  her 
hand,  and  sews  as  she  talks. 

See  that  hand  loom  over  there !  Our  hostess  weaves 
cloth  in  the  winter  when  she  cannot  work  in  the  fields. 
Many  of  the  women  make  beautiful  laces  and  embroideries. 

Leaving  the  house,  we  stroll  through  the  village,  visiting 
its  little  church,  and  then  drive  on  to  a  large  country  town 


92 


FRANCE. 


not  far  away.  Let  us  stop  before  we  go  in,  and  watch  the 
women  washing  at  that  stream  outside  the  town.  Each 
woman  has  a  wooden  box  or  tray  at  the  edge  of  the  water, 
in  which  she  kneels,  and,  leaning  over,  dips  in  the  clothes 
and  rubs  them  clean  upon  the  flat  stones.  There  is  a  girl 
who  is  pounding  the  dirt  out  with  a  paddle.  She  has  laid 
the  blue  cotton  shirt  she  is  washing  upon  a  rock  in  the 


An  Outdoor  Laundry. 


water,  and  is  striking  it  again  and  again.  Now  she  is  dip- 
ping the  garment  into  the  stream,  and  now  she  has  doubled 
it  up  to  pound  it  again.  Others  have  finished  their  wash- 
ing, and  are  hanging  the  clothes  on  the  fence  at  the  back 
or  spreading  them  out  on  the  grass  to  dry.  This  sort  of 
washing  is  done  all  over  France,  although  in  some  of  the 
cities  there  are  public  laundries  where  the  •  women  may 
wash  free  of  charge  or  for  a  few  cents  a  day. 


RURAL  FRANCE.  93 

In  the  town  we  find  all  sorts  of  work  going  on  in  the 
streets.  The  French  are  fond  of  open  air  life.  We  see 
women  and  girls  knitting  and  sewing  on  their  house  steps, 
others  near  by  are  cleaning  vegetables  for  dinner,  and 
farther  on  a  girl  is  combing  her  hair,  right  out  on  the 
street. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  men  and  the  children.  Tailors 
and  shoemakers  bring  their  work  out  to  the  sidewalks, 
school  children  bring  their  books  home  and  study  out- 
doors, and  the  little  ones  play  all  sorts  of  games  in  the 
streets.  ^^ — -— 

See  that  girl  on  that  doorstep  with  her  doll  in  her  arms. 
What  a  pretty  Uttle  French  mother,  and  what  a  very  odd 
doll !  The  doll's  legs  are  wrapped  round  and  round  with 
a  white  cloth  in  a  tight  bundle.  That  is  the  way  the  live 
French  babies  are  dressed,  and  the  little  girl  could  not 
imagine  her  baby  real  if  it  were  in  one  of  the  long  gowfts 
our  babies  wear. 

We  visit  the  public  museum  and  the  library,  and  then  go 
into  the  schools.  Every  town  in  France  has  these  institu- 
tions, for  the  French  are  among  the  most  advanced  of  all 
nations  in  their  learning  and  culture.  They  have  many 
colleges  and  large  universities,  and  are  noted  for  their 
scientific  and  literary  ability. 

We  spend  some  time  at  the  schoolhouses,  smiling  a  little 
at  the  boys,  who  are  dressed  too  much  like  girls  to  suit 
young  Americans.  Many  quite  large  boys  wear  black 
dresses  which  fall  below  the  knees  of  their  trousers. 
Some  of  the  boys  have  on  stockings  so  short  that  they 
do  not  meet  the  ends  of  their  knickerbockers,  and  a  strip 
of  red, 'bare  skin  eight  inches  wide  shows.  .  It  makes  us 
think  of  the  soldiers  we  saw  wearing  kilts  in  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland. 


94 


FRANCE. 


The  teacher  tells  us  the  school  hours  are  from  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  four  in  the  afternoon,  with  two 
hours  for  dinner.  He  shows  us  the  school  savings  bank, 
in  which  the  children  can  make  deposits  equal  to  one  cent 
or  more  at  a  time,  and  says  that  the  parents  sometimes 
teach  their  children  habits  of  saving  by  giving  them  money 
to  put  in  the  school  bank,  so  that  they  may  have  a  capital 
with  which  to  start  life  when  they  leave  school.  These 
school  banks  are  connected  with  the  postal  savings  banks, 

and  are  so  popular  that 
hundreds  of  thousands 
of  accounts  have  thus 
been  opened  by  children. 
Our  town  is  on  the 
edge  of  a  forest,  and  we 
take  a  long  drive  through 
the  woods.  How  clean 
and  well  kept  everything 
is !  There  is  hardly  a 
twig  on  the  ground,  not 
a  rotten  log  or  a  stump 
to  be  seen.  Even  the 
bark  of  small  trees  is 
saved,  and  that  of  some 
kinds  is  stripped  off  and 
used  to  tie  the  sheaves 
**  There  is  a  woman  preparing  such         of  wheat  and  oats.  There 

bark." 

IS    a    woman  preparmg 

such  bark  and  putting  it  up  in  bundles  for  sale.     Where 

the  trees  have  been  cut  they  have  been  chopped  off  close 

to  the  ground,  and  every  chip  saved.    Fuel  is  expensive  in 

France,  and  the  people  do  not  waste  it  as  we  do.     The 

wood  is  made  up  for  sale  in  little  bundles  not  much  bigger 


COMMERCIAL  AND   MANUFACTURING  FRANCE.  95 

than  a  bundle  of  kindling  wood,  and  in  the  cities  it  is  often 
sold  by  weight. 

The  French  are  always  planting  trees ;  they  have  a  say- 
ing that  every  tree  earns  its  own  living.  Every  forest  has 
its  keeper,  who  can  tell  when  a  tree  reaches  the  right  age 
for  firewood ;  and  in  the  government  forests  it  is  forbidden 
by  law  to  destroy  the  trees.  The  result  is  that,  although 
France  is  a  very  old  country,  about  one  sixth  of  it  is  still 
wooded.  We  meet  one  of  the  forest  guards  now  and 
then  during  our  drive,  and  when  we  propose  to  break  off 
a  stick  for  a  cane  our  coachman  warns  us  that  if  we  do  so 
we  may  be  arrested. 

XL     COMMERCIAL   AND    MANUFACTURING 
FRANCE. 

LET  us  look  at  France  on  the  map  to  learn,  if  we  can, 
why  it  has  been  the  home  of  one  of  the  greatest  of 
the  European  nations.  The  country  consists  of  a  great 
block  of  rolling  plains  so  guarded  by  mountains  and  seas 
that  its  inhabitants  can  easily  defend  it.  There  are  the 
English  Channel  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  north  and 
the  west,  the  Mediterranean  and  the  mountain  wall  of  the 
Pyrenees  on  the  south,  and  the  Alps,  the  Jura,  and  the 
Vosges  on  the  east,  so  arranged  that  only  a  short  chain  of 
fortresses  is  needed  to  ward  off  a  sudden  attack. 

Is  it  not  natural  that  a  great  nation  should  grow  up 
inside  such  walls  of  mountains  and  water  ?  Yes ;  and 
when  the  country  within  has  good  seaports,  and  also  navi- 
gable rivers  connected  by  many  canals,  we  see  that  it 
is  naturally  fitted  for  commerce  and  trade.  It  has  also 
coal  and  other  minerals,  and  thousands  of  streams  flow 


96 


FRANCE. 


down  from  the  mountains,  giving  water  power  to  all  sorts 
of  factories. 

As  we  make  our  way  from  one  great  port  to  another, 
we  shall  see  that  all  parts  of  France  are  connected  by 
water,  so  that,  notwithstanding  the  good  railroad  system^ 
much  of  the  freight  still  goes  upon  boats  because  it  is 
cheaper.  In  some  places  the  coal  rate  is  one  cent  per  ton 
per  mile,  while  in  others  a  ton  of  goods  is  carried  three 
miles  for  a  cent. 

We  could,  if  we  chose,  visit  all  parts  of  France  by  the 
Seine,  the  Loire,  the  Rhone,  and  Garonne,  and  the  canals 
which  connect  them.  The  Burgundy  Canal  connects  the 
Rhone,  through  its  tributaries,  with  the  Seine,  and  the  Canal 
du  Centre  joins  it  to  the  Loire,  while  the  Canal  du  Midi 
unites  with  the  river  Garonne  and  brings  the  waters  of  the 
Bay  of  Biscay  and  the  Mediterranean  together,  so  that  boats 
can  go  from  one  to  the  other  and  thus  save  the  voyage  of 
two  thousand  miles  around  the  Spanish  Peninsula.   There  is 

also  a  canal  from 
the  Seine  to  the 
Rhine,  in  which 
by  locks  the  boats 
are  lifted  over  a 
pass  in  the  Vosges 
Mountains  more 
than  a  thousand 
feet  hisfh. 
/^■'" ,'^"^  We    visit     the 

" — shipping  from  all  parts  of  the  world."  chief    seaportS  of 

France,  and  find  them  filled  with  shipping  from  all  parts 
of  the  world.  At  Havre,  the  port  of  Paris  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Seine,  we  see  steamers  which  have  crossed  the 
Atlantic  from  New  York,  with  loads  of  our  cotton,  tobacco, 


COMMERCIAL   AND   MANUFACTURING   FRANCE. 


97 


and  wheat  to  be  sold  to  the  French.  There  are  ships  from 
Brazil  and  other  parts  of  South  America,  and  also  from 
the  United  Kingdom,  Germany,  and  the  many  other  coun- 
tries with  which  France  has  a  great  trade. 


"We  spend  some  time  in  Bordeaux." 

We  spend  some  time  in  Bordeaux,  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Garonne.  It  is  as  big  as  Washington,  and  is  a  beau- 
tiful city.  At  its  wharves  are  many  vessels  loading  wines, 
and  we  learn  that  Bordeaux  is  the  chief  wine  port  of  the 
world.  The  French  raise  grapes  in  nearly  all  parts  of 
their  country.  They  produce  more  wine  than  any  other 
people,  making  enough  annually  to  give  a  gallon  to  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  upon  earth,  and  have  plenty  left 
for  themselves.  The  French  consume  almost  a  billion 
gallons  a  year.  Nearly  every  one  has  wine  with  his  dinner, 
and  we  see  even  the  little  children  drinking  wine  with 
their  lunches  as  we  ride  through  France  on  the  cars. 

We  take  a  run  from  Bordeaux  out  into  the  country  to 
look  at  the   vineyards.     They  are  much  the  same  as.  in 


98 


FRANCE. 


many  other  parts  of  France  where  fine  wines  are  produced. 
There  are  vines  everywhere ;  not  trained  upon  arbors  or 
latticework,  but  tied  to  stakes  about  as  high  as  your  waist. 
Each  vine  has  its  own  stake,  the  branches  being  cut  almost 
down  to  the  ground  every  year.  Many  of  the  hills  are 
terraced,  the  rows  of  vines  making  green  steps  up  the 
hillsides.  See,  there  are  women  hoeing  in  the  field  over 
there ;  on  that  hill  to  the  right  they  are  weeding  the  vines, 


A  Vineyard. 


and  tying  them  with  strings  to  the  stakes.  Some  of  the 
women  wear  bonnets  so  deep  we  cannot  see  their  faces 
except  when  they  look  up.  There  are  children  at  work 
in  the  vineyards,  as  well  as  women  and  men. 

On  our  return  to  Bordeaux  we  visit  the  wine  cellars. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  the  city.  We  walk 
through  cave  after  cave,  filled  with  great  casks,  and  thou- 
sands of  bottles  carefully  arranged  upon  shelves.  Such 
cellars  are  common  in  all  the  wine  centers. 


COMMERCIAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  FRANCE. 


99 


At  Bordeaux  we  take  the  express  train  for  Marseilles,  the 
chief  port  of  southern  France,  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
For  miles  there  is  nothing  but  vineyards  on  both  sides  of 
the  track.  Now  we  pass  an  orange  orchard,  and  now  see 
pale  yellow  lemons  gleaming  out  through  the  green  leaves. 
There  are  dark  green  olive  trees  and  semitropical  plants. 
There  are  men,  women,  and  children  at  work  everywhere. 


In  an  Olive  Grove. 


The  women  wear  white  caps  and  woolen  dresses  with 
short  skirts.  Even  the  children  wear  wooden  shoes. 
There  is  a  drove  of  little  donkeys,  each  carrying  two  pan- 
niers of  vegetables  or  fruits  to  the  market.  Farther  on 
are  some  mules  at  work  in  a  field.  Everywhere  there  are 
roses  and  other  beautiful  flowers.  There  is  so  much  to 
see  that  we  are  almost  sorry  when  we  reach  the  end  of  our 
journey. 


lOO 


FRANCE. 


Harbor,  Marseilles. 


We  spend  some  days  at  Marseilles.  It  is  the  outlet  for 
the  trade  of  the  rich  Rhone  valley,  and  for  all  France  to 
the  Mediterranean,  and  the  F^r  East.  It  is  as  big  as  St. 
Louis,  and,  owing  to  its  excellent  harbor  and  the  busy  and 
rich  French  people  about  it,  is  the  chief  port  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea. 

We  take  the  cars  at  Marseilles,  and  travel  northward 
through  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  to  Lyons,  at  the  head  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Rhone,  where  the  turbulent  Saone  flows 
into  it.  We  are  now  in  what  is,  next  to  Paris,  the  chief  man- 
ufacturing city  of  France,  and  in  a  city  where  more  silks 
are  woven  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  The  French 
make  more  of  these  goods  than  any  other  nation  of  Europe ; 
and  in  this  city  there  are  thousands  of  men,  women,  and 
children  who  do  nothing  else  but  make  silk  thread,  and 
weave  silk. 


COMMERCIAL  AND   MANUFACTURING   FRANCE. 


lOI 


In  Lyons. 


Lyons  is  as  big  as  Buffalo,  and  it  has  become  great 
chiefly  from  its  silk  manufactures.  Let  me  tell  you  how 
the  business  started.  Until  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  Europe  got  the  most  of  its  fine  silks  from  Italy;  but 
a  few  years  after  Columbus  discovered  America,  Francis  I, 
then  king  of  France,  sent  out  word  to  the  silk  weavers  of 
Europe  that  if  they  would  come  to  France  they  should 
have  more  rights  than  other  workmen.  He  said  that  they 
should  pay  no  taxes,  their  lodgings  should  be  free,  and 
they  should  have  the  right  to  wear  swords,  a  privilege  at 
that  time  seldom  accorded  to  any  but  the  nobles.  The 
result  was  that  many  Italian  weavers  came  to  Lyons,  which 
through  its  industrial  fairs  was  already  noted  as  a  trading 
place.  They  first  wove  thick  silk  goods  and  brocaded 
velvets  such  as  they  had  made  at  home,  but  afterward 
lighter  silks  were  manufactured. 

CARP.    EUROPE — 7 


102  FRANCE. 

The  French  soon  learned  silk  weaving.  They  made  all 
sorts  of  new  designs,  until  at  last  it  came  about  that  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  cloths  were  made  by  them.  In 
the  meantime  Paris  became  the  center  of  European  fash- 
ion and  art,  and  merchants  from  all  nations  went  there 
to  get  new  fabrics  and  styles,  until  it  was  found  that  if  a 
pattern  or  style  originated  in  Paris  it  was  pretty  sure  to 
sell  well  everywhere.  This  is  the  position  which  the 
French  hold  in  the  world  to-day.  They  are  suppofsed  to 
know  what  is  beautiful  better  than  any  other  nation,  and 
they  are  always  inventing  new  styles.  We  visit  schools  in 
Lyons  where  designing  is  taught,  and  where  any  one  who 
will  pay  can  learn  how  to  weave  the  most  beautiful  silks, 
satins,  and  velvets,  if  he  will  only  apply  himself.  These 
schools  have  students  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

But  where  does  France  get  the  silk  thread  to  weave  these 
fine  goods  ?  Some  of  it,  as  we  saw  at  Marseilles,  is  im- 
ported from  Asia,  but  much  is  produced  right  here  in  the 
Rhone  valley.  In  southern  P'ranCe  there  are  many  orchards 
of  mulberry  trees,  whose  leaves  are  used  for  feeding  silk- 
worms. The  people  pick  off  the  leaves  and  lay  them  upon 
boards,  where  the  worms,  having  been  carefully  hatched 
from  the  eggs  of  the  silk  moth,  are  lying.  After  the  worms 
begin  to  eat  they  must  be  kept  supplied  with  food,  and 
the  people  are  often  up  all  night  tending  them.  At  such 
times  you  can  hear  the  worms  chewing,  the  thousands 
of  little  jaws  of  a  large  colony  making  a  pecuHar  noise. 
They  grow  very  rapidly,  and  after  a  time  stop  eating  and 
spin  their  cocoons,  from  which  the  silk  threads  are  after- 
wards  reeled  off  by  machinery  and  by  hand. 

Leaving  Lyons,  we  visit  other  silk-weaving  towns. 
There  are  many  in  France,  for  it  is  a  great  manufac- 
turing country,  and  there  is  scarcely  a  village  that  is  not 


N    G 


t  I 


SB       C 


II  A  ^ 


C.  La  Hague 


o  Antwerp  ^jf  7 


Q 


J      'x^.  OF  WIG  IT     Boulognef     !sw©«a«5^rtKgoi»tSlX         ^«<'nr^         XJ^Xi^ 


Ji    *'l  ALDERNEY,    c-v  ,-. 


Uprlalx^ 


Angpi-s( 


YEU> 

-BM   Y      OF 

,       |^TlKa  Rochel 
OLERONMl*i^oc)icr 
Sautes 


Ib  J"  /S-    C   ^    Y 


Sovde^ 


'VersKille^*?^ARIS 


Oi/iyand 
Tour/  ^^loii 


Tfi: 
Cniunf 


)i  iei 


FRAIS^CE 

SCALE  OP  MILES 


I04  FRANCE. 

noted  for  some  industry  or  other.  We  spend  some  time 
in  the  thriving  city  of  St.  Etienne  (saNt  a-te-enn').  It  is 
on  the  swift  River  Furens  in  the  midst  of  coal  fields,  where 
the  water  power  and  cheap  fuel  have  caused  numerous 
factories  to  spring  up.  It  might  be  called  the  Sheffield  of 
France,  for  it  makes  all  kinds  of  fine  cutlery,  manufac- 
turing five  thousand  knives  every  week. 

We  are  more  interested,  however,  in  the  ribbons.  St. 
Etienne  weaves  more  ribbons  than  any  other  place  in  the 
,  world.  It  produces  more  than  half  of  all  the  ribbons  of 
Europe,  and  I  think  there  are  many  girls  in  our  party 
who  have  St.  Etienne  ribbons  upon  them.  There  are  forty 
thousand  people  here  who  work  only  on  ribbons,  many 
millions  of  dollars  worth  of  such  goods  being  annually 
exported. 

Let  us  enter  some  of  the  establishments.  Many  of  them 
consist  of  a  single  hand  loom  in  the  home  of  the  weaver. 
How  pale  and  wan  the  workpeople  look,  and  how  their 
tired  faces  stand  out  in  contrast  with  the  bright  threads 
they  are  using.  They  must  work  very  carefully  upon  the 
best  ribbons,  and  some  of  them  labor  many  hours  a  day 
for  wages  much  lower  than  those  paid  in  our  country. 

How  beautiful  the  ribbons  are  !  They  are  of  all  kinds. 
Some  have  flowers  and  birds  raised  in  satin  on  soft  silken 
grounds.  There  are  ribbons  of  gold  and  ribbons  of  silver, 
ribbons  decorated  with  all  sorts  of  leaves,  and  ribbons  as 
wonderful  in  their  colors  as  a  peacock's  tail,  all  made  in 
these  mean  little  homes. 

We  next  visit  some  of  the  towns  where  they  make  lace. 
There  is  one  not  far  from  St.  Etienne  where  nearly  every 
family  is  engaged  in  this  work,  and  where  in  one  little 
district  there  are  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  lace 
workers.     Most  of  them  are  women,  but  there  are  many 


COMMERCIAL  AND   MANUFACTURING   FRANCE.         105 

small  children  knitting  away.  We  often  see  the  workers 
sitting  in  the  street  outside  their  houses,  plying  their 
reels,  and  even  find  them  in  the  market  places  and  on 
the  church  steps.  They  are  making  the  torchon  lace 
which  is  sold  all  over  the  world.  Some  of  the  most  deli- 
cate patterns  are  stitched  upon  pillows,  while  others  are 
put  together  with  needles. 

The  centers  of  the  woolen  and  Hnen  industries  of  France 
are  also  quite  interesting.  We  have  all  heard  of  lisle 
thread  gloves  and  stockings,  and  we  wish  to  visit  the  place 
where  they  are  made.  This  is  at  Lisle,  a  city  of  two 
hundred  thousand  people  in  northeastern  France.  Cam- 
brics are  made  at  the  town  of  Cambrai  (koN-bra^),  not  far 
from  Lisle. 

There  are  curious  manufacturing  villages  in  the  Jura 
and  Vosges  Mountains,  little  Pittsburgs  walled  in  by 
hills,  each  of  which  has  its  blackened  chimneys  and  clouds 
of  coal  smoke.  One  town  produces  nothing  but  clocks, 
another  makes  nails,  and  a  third,  strange  to  say,  devotes 
itself  to  the  study  of  noses.  In  the  last  the  people  are  all 
engaged  in  manufacturing  spectacles,  making  them  so  they 
will  fit  the  long  nose,  the  short  nose,  and  no-nose-at-all 
people,  all  the  world  over. 

But  there  is  one  thing  we  must  see  before  we  go  on  to 
Paris,  and  that  is  how  they  make  china.  The  French  are 
noted  for  their  beautiful  porcelains.  You  will  find  their 
wares  in  almost  any  town  of  our  country,  the  plates  or 
dishes  being  stamped  with  the  name  of  the  place  of  their 
manufacture.  Many  of  the  finest  bear  the  word  Limoges 
(le-mozh/).  That  town  is  one  of  the  centers  of  the  porce- 
lain manufacture  of  France,  and  there  we  shall  go.  Li- 
moges lies  in  the  south-central  part  of  the  country,  near 
some  rich  coal  mines  and  close  to  the  beds  of  fine  white 


I06  FR/VNCE. 

clay  of  which  the  china  is  made.  We  watch  them  dig 
the  clay  from  the  earth,  and  follow  it  to  the  mills,  where 
it  is  ground  very  fine.  It  is  next  mixed  with  water  into 
a  stiff  paste,  and  this  paste  is  treated  in  certain  ways  until 
it  becomes  a  mass  not  unlike  bread  dough  after  kneading. 
The  workmen  take  the  white  dough  and  mold  it  into  all 
sorts  of  beautiful  dishes,  vases,  and  other  such  things,  which 
are  then  put  into  kilns  and  burnt  until  they  are  as  hard 
as  glass,  when  they  are  taken  out  and  cooled.  Some  of 
the  dishes  are  painted  and  some  are  decorated  with  gold. 
Some  are  as  thin  as  an  eggshell,  and  so  translucent  that 
we  can  almost  see  through  them. 

Later  on  in  our  tour  we  visit  St.  Cloud  (saN  kloo'),  near 
Paris,  where  the  famous  Sevres  (savr)  ware  is  made.  The 
factory  there  has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  government  for 
more  than  one  hundred  years,  its  chief  object  being  to 
design  beautiful  things  for  the  benefit  of  private  manufac- 
turers. While  we  are  in  the  works  we  see  a  tea  set  worth 
three  thousand  dollars,  and  copies  of  famous  pictures  on 
porcelain,  some  of  which  sell  for  as  much  as  ten  thousand 
dollars  apiece.  They  are  very  beautiful,  but  far  too  costly 
for  us. 

XII.     THE   MOST   BEAUTIFUL   CITY   OF 
THE   WORLD 

LET  us  stand  together  on  the  top  of  the  Eiffel  Tower 
and  take  a  look  over  Paris  before  we  begin  to  explore 
it.  We  are  nine  hundred  feet  above  the  ground  on  a  great 
framework  of  iron,  rising  upon  the  banks  of  the  Seine  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  beautiful  city  of  the  world. 

Below  us  lies  a  vast  network  of  cream-colored  houses, 


THE   MOST   BEAUTIFUL  CITY   OF  THE   WORLD.         107 

built  in  regular  lines  along  wide  streets  which  cross  one 
another  in  almost  every  direction.  There  is  a  wall  around 
the  edges,  and  with  a  glass  we  can  see  many  forts  with 
soldiers  moving  about  on  the  ramparts.  Paris  has  been 
compared  to  a  camp.  It  is  about  twenty-two  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, and  is  the  largest  city  of  continental  Europe. 

Look  down  upon  it  and  see  how  clean  everything  is ! 
Notice  the  very  wide  streets.  They  are  walled  with  mag- 
nificent buildings  and  hned  with  great  forest  trees.  Those 
are  the  famous  boulevards  of  Paris.  Each  of  them  has 
sidewalks  as  wide  as  the  ordinary  roadway,  and  the  space 
between  is  paved  with  asphalt  or  smooth  wooden  blocks. 
The  streets  are  washed  with  the  hose  every  morning. 
They  are  swept  and  mopped,  and  in  the  evening  the  rag 
pickers  go  about  and  pick  up  the  scraps  of  paper,  cloth, 
and  other  things  which  fall  during  the  day. 

See  how  the  river  winds  its  way  through  the  city,  and 
how  the  water  sparkles  under  the  rays  of  the  sun.  It  is 
so  far  down  that  the  many  boats  upon  it  look  like  toys, 
and  the  men  on  the  quays  like  pygmies  hanging  over 
little  stone  walls.  That  is  the  Seine.  It  flows  from  here 
down  to-  the  sea,  with  a  deep  channel  most  of  the  way, 
and  this  has  been  so  dug  out  that  ships  that  do  not  draw 
more  than  ten  feet  of  water  can  come  right  up  to  Paris. 
This  has  made  Paris  the  chief  port  of  France,  although  it 
is  situated  one  hundred  miles  from  the  coast.  There  are 
boats  there  below  us  which  have  come  from  London  and  the 
other  ports  of  northern  Europe.  There  are  always  boats 
floating  down  from  the  upper  parts  of  the  Seine,  and  if 
we  should  travel  up  the  Marne,  which  joins  the  Seine  just 
outside  Paris,  we  might  find  a  canal  by  which  we  could  go 
clear  to  the  Rhine,  where  other  boats  would  take  us  out 
through  Belgium  and  Holland  to  the  North  Sea. 


io8 


FRANCE. 


What  a  number  of  railroads  there  are  coming  into  Paris 
from  every  direction.  This  is  the  railroad  center  of  France. 
You  can  get  fast  trains  here  any  day  for  any  capital  of 
Europe.  Seven  hours  will  take  you  across  the  Channel 
to  London ;  we  could  leave  now  and  be  in  Berlin  in  the 
morning,  or  going  on  reach  St.  Petersburg,  the  capital  of 
Russia,  by  day  after  to-morrow.     That  train  which  is  shoot- 


*'  That  is  the  Seine." 

ing  off  to  the  south  is  bound  for  the  Mediterranean,  there 
goes  another  on  its  way  to  Switzerland,  and  there  are  other 
roads  in  that  network  of  steel  which  extend  on  to  the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube,  carrying  the  fast  Oriental  express 
by  which  one  can  go  from  Paris  to  Constantinople  in  less 
than  three  days. 

Cast  your  eyes  down  to  the  Seine.     See  that  little  island 
farther  on  up  the  river,  with  the  great  church  upon  it. 


THE   MOST  BEAUTIFUL  CITY   OF  THE  WORLD.         109 

That  is  the  Isle  de  la  Citd  upon  which  the  Parisii,  a  tribe 
of  half-savage  men,  had  their  chief  town  when  Caesar  sub- 
dued this  part  of  Gaul,  almost  two  thousand  years  ago. 
Caesar  conquered  the  Parisii  and  rebuilt  the  town.  It 
became  an  important  settlement  under  the  Romans,  and 
centuries  later  was  made  the  capital  of  France,  having 
been  the  residence  of  the  French  kings  for  almost  one 
thousand  years. 

But  let  us  go  down  and  begin  our  explorations  of  Paris. 
We  take  carriages  and  drive  for  miles  through  one  beauti- 
ful street  after  another,  all  walled  with  cream-colored  build- 
ings of  five  and  six  stories.  The  buildings  are  in  blocks 
built  close  to  the  inner  edge  of  the  sidewalk,  and  they  look 
so  much  alike  that  we  wonder  that  a  Parisian  does  not 
sometimes  lose  his  way  and  go  into  the  house  of  his  neigh- 
bor. There  are  no  gardens  except  at  the  back  of  the 
houses,  or  in  little  courts  inside  them.  Each  building  con- 
tains many  families.  The  Parisians  live  in  flats  or  apart- 
ments, and  even  in  the  best  sections  of  the  city  there  are 
stores  on  the  ground  floor,  with  homes  on  the  floors 
higher  up.  One  family  will  have  five  or  six  rooms ;  it 
may  be  a  dining  room,  parlor,  and  kitchen,  with  two  or 
three  bedrooms,  all  on  the  same  floor  ;  and  many  must 
cHmb  three  or  four  pairs  of  stairs  every  time  they  go  in 
doors  or  out. 

This  is  one  reason  why  we  see  so  many  people  on  the 
streets  and  in  the  parks.  The  French  love  the  open  air, 
and  as  most  of  them  can  have  no  gardens  of  their  own, 
they  come  to  the  boulevards  and  walk  up  and  down. 
There  are  benches  on  the  streets  where  we  see  women 
knitting,  and  there  are  crowds  walking  in  the  public  gar- 
dens at  almost  any  time  of  the  day.  Girls  take  their  sew- 
ing out   on   the  streets,  and   chat  and  work  while  they 


no  FRANCE. 

watch  the  people  go  by.  We  see  women  stitching  and 
knitting  outdoors;  they  knit  even  while  riding  on  the 
street  cars,  and  we  are  rarely  out  of  sight  of  a  woman 
working  away  at  a  stocking.  Each  of  the  public  gardens 
and  parks  looks  as  though  a  picnic  was  being  held  in  it, 
especially  on  Saturday  afternoons,  when  many  families  eat 
their  lunches  under  the  trees. 


Arc  de  Triomphe. 

We  drive  to  the  Arc  de  Triomphe  (ark  d'tre-6Nf')  and 
down  through  the  Champs  filys^es  (shoN^  za-le-za')  to  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde  (k6N-kord').  The  Arc  de  Triomphe 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  monuments  of  the  world.  It 
was  begun  by  the  great  Napoleon  in  1806  to  commemorate 
the  glories  of  the  French  in  some  of  their  wars.  We  are 
delighted  with  the  Champs  Elys^es.  They  are  beautiful 
gardens  with  a  magnificent  avenue  bordered  with  trees 
running  through  them.     Every  afternoon  the  avenue  is 


THE  MOST  BEAUTIFUL  CITY  OF  THE  WORLD. 


Ill 


crowded  with  carriages,  and  men  and  women  on  horseback, 
and  under  the  trees  on  each  side  children  are  playing  all 
sorts  of  games.  There  are  little  booths  where  toys  and 
cakes  and  candies  are  sold,  and  there  are  merry-go-rounds 
and  Punch  and  Judy  shows. 

But  there  is  so  much  to  see  that  we  leave  our  carriage 
and  walk  down  the  avenue.     Isn't  it  interesting  to  watch 


Champs  Elysees. 

the  French  children  playing  ?  They  are  romping  about 
almost  as  lively  as  little  Americans ;  and  we  cannot  help 
wishing  we  knew  enough  French  to  stop  and  play  with 
them. 

Those  chairs  along  the  shady  side  of  the  walk  are  not 
free.  If  you  sit  down  in  one  it  will  cost  you  a  penny, 
whether  you  sit  there  an  hour  or  a  minute.  It  is  only  the 
benches  that  are  free  to  the  public. 

But  here  we  are  in  the  Place  de  la  Concorde.  How 
beautiful  it  is  !      I   dare  say  we  shall  not  see  anything 


112  FRANCE. 

SO  fine  elsewhere  in  our  travels.  We  are  surrounded  by 
gardens  and  parks  and  beautiful  buildings.  There  at  the 
east  is  the  Garden  of  theTuileries  (twe'le-riz),  where  the 
kings  of  France  used  to  live,  and  just  beyond  are  the  Grand 
Museum  and  Art  Gallery  of  the  Louvre,  one  of  the  finest 
of  its  kind  in  the  world.  At  the  west  as  far  as  we  can  see 
runs  the  Champs  Elysees  with  the  great  Arc  de  Triomphe 
on  the  hill  in  the  distance,  while  on  the  south  is  the  Seine, 
with  its  boats  of  all  kinds  puffing  along  to  and  fro,  with 
the  Palace  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  the  opposite 
bank. 

Now  let  us  turn  our  backs  to  the  Seine  and  look  in  the 
opposite  direction.  That  tall  round  pillar  with  Napoleon's 
statue  on  top  rising  high  out  of  the  houses  is  the  Column 
Vendome  (voN-dom'),  made  from  the  cannon  which  Napo- 
leon captured  from  the  Austrians  and  Russians ;  and  that 
church  to  the  left  is  the  Madeleine,  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  the  whole  world.  A  little  farther  on  our  eyes  catch 
the  roof  of  the  Opera  House,  another  magnificent  struc- 
ture ;  while  near  us  in  the  Place  are  beautiful  fountains,  the 
great  obelisk  brought  here  from  Egypt,  and  statues  repre- 
senting the  chief  towns  of  France. 

But  let  us  go  for  a  walk  on  the  boulevards.  They  are 
filled  with  people  laughing  and  chatting.  There  are  many 
fashionably  dressed  men  and  women  moving  along  arm 
in  arm.  There  are  laborers  in  blue  cotton  walking 
this  way  and  that.  Newsboys  are  crying  their  papers, 
girls  are  peddling  flowers,  and  hawkers  are  selling  pic- 
tures, toys,  and  all  sorts  of  knickknacks.  We  pass  crowds 
of  people  eating  and  drinking  out  on  the  sidewalks.  There 
are  caf6s  at  every  few  steps,  and  most  of  them  have  more 
customers  without  than  within.  Families  are  chatting  as 
they  eat  and  drink.     Many  men  are  reading  the  papers, 


THE  MOST  BEAUTIFUL  CITY  OF  THE  WORLD.        113 


and  not  a  few  boys  are  playing  dominoes  at  tables  out  in 
the  street. 

What  fine  store  windows !  The  boulevards  are  lined 
with  shops,  and  as  we  go  along  we  seem  to  be  walking 
through  a  great  expo- 
sition. Paris  is  cele- 
brated for  its  beauti- 
ful wares,  known  as 
"Articles  de  Paris." 
It  makes  the  finest 
of  furniture,  clocks, 
silverware,  bronzes, 
and  pictures.  We 
pass  many  jewelry 
stores  where  pre- 
cious stones  set  in 
all  shapes  are  spread 
upon  purple  velvet 
cushions  behind  the 
plate  glass ;  and  stay  for  a  time  in  the  great  department 
stores,  and  wander  about  among  so  many  fascinating  knick- 
knacks  and  fine  goods  of  all  kinds  that  we  do  not  wonder 
that  people  from  everywhere  come  to  Paris  to  shop.  We 
have  trouble  in  tearing  away  the  girls  of  our  party  from 
the  millinery  and  dressmaking  establishments,  for  the  latest 
styles  in  hats  and  gowns  come  from  Paris,  and  they  think 
anything  they  buy  here  is  sure  to  be  new. 

We  next  visit  the  Halles  Centralles  (al  soN-tral' )  to  see 
something  of  the  markets  of  Paris.  The  French  have 
great  respect  for  their  stomachs,  and  the  best  of  every- 
thing comes  to  the  capital.  The  Halles  Centralles  are  the 
largest  markets  of  the  city.  They  are  great  pavilions  of 
iron  and  glass,  covering,  all  told,  about  twenty  acres. 


cafes  at  every  few  steps." 


114 


FRANCE. 


"  —  we  find  the  markets  already  crowded." 

It  is  early  morning,  and  we  find  the  markets  already 
crowded  with  women  dressed  in  white  caps  and  short  petti- 
coats, and  men  in  caps  and  blue  blouses,  all  gathered  about 
little  pens  where  the  supplies  for  the  day  are  being  sold  at 
auction.  We  stop  before  a  stall  where  they  are  selling 
chickens  at  wholesale.  That  Frenchman  in  white  cap 
and  apron  behind  the  counter  is  the  auctioneer,  and  the 
black-dressed  woman  beside  him  is  his  cashier  and 
bookkeeper.  Nearly  all  the  buyers  are  women,  who 
bob  their  white-capped  heads  up  and  down  as  they  shout 
out  their  bids,  shaking  their  hands  at  the  auctioneer  as 


THE  MOST  BEAUTIFUL  CITY  OF  THE  WORLD.         II 5 


they  do  so.  The  chickens  are  brought  to  the  stall  in 
crates  on  the  heads  of  porters,  and  disposed  of  at  the  rate 
of  a  crate  to  the  minute. 

Through  one  pavilion  after  another  we  go,  past  crowds 
who  are  buying  eggs,  butter,  and  cheese,  jostled  now  and 
then  by  the  market  women  rushing  hither  and  thither,  and 
by  blue-bloused  porters  who  are  carrying  great  loads  of 
vegetables  and  meat  on  their  heads.     In  another  pavilion 


"  —  selling  baskets  of  live  rabbits." 

we  see  women  selling  baskets  of  live  rabbits,  and  in  an- 
other stall  farther  off,  oysters  and  snails  and  frog  legs. 
We  ask  a  snail  seller  about  her  business,  and  are  told  that 
a  million  pounds  of  snails  are  sold  here  every  year.  They 
are  esteemed  a  great  delicacy,  and  when  ready  for  eating 
bring  about  one  franc  a  dozen.  Many  are  imported  from 
Switzerland  and  many  come  from  the  vineyards  of  France. 
A  little  later  the  retail  market  begins.     The  thousands 


Il6  FRANCE. 

of  Stalls  have  been  trimmed  up  for  the  day  and  all  wares 
are  neatly  displayed.  The  officer  in  charge  tells  us  that 
the  food  sold  at  wholesale  alone  brings  in  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  day,  and  that  the  supplies  come 
from  all  parts  of  France,  from  North  Africa,  and  from  all 
over  Europe.  He  shows  us  reindeer  from  Norway,  mut- 
ton from  England,  eggs  from  Belgium,  and  bread  made  of 
wheat  grown  in  the  United  States. 

How  queer  the  bread  is !  It  is  baked  in  loaves  about  as 
long  and  as  thick  as  a  baseball  club,  so  long  that  they 
reach  high  above  the  head  of  that  boy  who  is  carrying 
some  home.  Let  us  buy  one  and  taste  it.  Is  it  not  good  ? 
Yes,  the  French  cook  everything  well ;  we  have  not  tasted 
frog  legs  and  snails,  but  our  everyday  meals  are  delicious. 
We  soon  become  fond  of  the  French  way  of  living,  al- 
though it  is  different  from  ours.  We  enjoy  the  light 
breakfast  of  a  cup  of  coffee,  two  rolls  of  bread,  and  a 
pat  of  unsalted  butter.  This  we  have  upon  rising ;  it  is 
the  breakfast  of  well-to-do  people  all  over  France.  The 
poor  eat  still  less  at  this  time,  many  having  nothing  but  a 
piece  of  dry  bread  and  a  glass  of  cold  water.  Some  well- 
to-do  people  take  their  breakfasts  in  bed,  and  at  our  hotel 
we  are  told  that  we  may  have  our  coffee  in  our  bedrooms 
without  extra  charge. 

The  next  meal  comes  about  noon.  The  French  call  it 
breakfast  with  the  fork ;  it  consists  of  meat  and  vegetables 
with  sometimes  a  soup,  and  it  is  usually  quite  as  good  as 
our  midday  dinner  at  home.  The  people  eat  slowly,  and 
in  parts  of  south  France  two  hours  are  set  aside  for  this 
meal,  when  even  the  business  men  stop  work  for  lunch  and 
a  nap,  or  a  chat  with  their  friends. 

The  chief  meal  of  the  day,  however,  is  dinner.  This 
comes  in  the  evening,  when  every  one  eats  as  well  as  his 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  GOVERNED. 


117 


purse  can  afford,  even  the  poor  having  a  soup,  vegetables, 
and  some  kind  of  meat  and  a  dessert.  Among  the  well- 
to-do  the  dinner  consists  of  a  half  dozen  courses  or  more, 
the  plates  being  changed  at  each  course  and  only  one  piece 
of  meat  or  one  vegetable  brought  on  at  a  time.  Such  a 
meal  usually  ends  with  a  small  cup  of  black  coffee. 


>:*:c 


XIII.     MORE   ABOUT   PARIS  — HOW   FRANCE 
IS   GOVERNED. 

WE  are  delighted  with  Paris.  EveryJ:hing  is  bright 
and  gay.  The  city  is  a  vast  treasury  of  industry 
and  art,  and  there  is  something  worth  seeing  wherever  we 
go.     We  stroll  through  palace  after  palace  filled  with  pic- 


The  Louvre. 


Il8  FRANCE. 

tures,  and  in  the  great  museums  of  the  Louvre  grow  so 
tired  of  the  long  galleries  walled  with  fine  paintings  that 
we  are  glad  to  leave  them  for  the  Garden  of  the  Tuileries 
and  the  children  playing  on  the  Champs  Elys^es. 

We  make  excursions  to  Fontainebleau  and  Versailles  in 
the  suburbs  of  Paris,  where  in  times  past  the  monarchs  of 
France  had  vast  country  homes  surrounded  by  extensive 
gardens  and  forests.  Their  palaces  still  stand  and  we  re- 
people  them  with  the  scenes  of  French  history  as  we 
wander  from  bedroom  to  bedroom  and  parlor  to  parlor, 
now   sitting   in   a  chair  where   Napoleon   Bonaparte  sat. 


Versailles. 

and  now  patting  the  cradle-like  bed  where  his  little  son, 
the  king  of  Rome,  lay  when  he  was  a  baby.  We  go 
through  the  rooms  where  Marie  Antoinette  and  the  Em- 
press Josephine  lived,  and  admire  their  gorgeous  furniture 
and  the  beautiful  paintings  which  look  down  from  the 
walls. 

At  Fontainebleau  we  take  a  drive  through  the  forest, 
stopping  at  the  fish  pond  near  the  palace  to  watch  the 
carp  swimming  about.     An  old  Frenchwoman  in  a  white 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  GOVERNED. 


119 


cap  and  blue  gown  comes  up  with  some  bread.  We 
buy  a  loaf,  break  it  in  pieces,  and  throw  them  into  the 
water.  The  great  fish  rush  for  the  bread.  They  push 
each  other  about  and  fight  for  the  crumbs,  even  as  the 
nobles  fought  "with  one  another  for  the  favors  of  the  kings 
who  once  lived  in  that  palace. 


"  —  admire  their  gorgeous  furniture." 

Returning  to  Paris,  we  make  a  trip  under  ground.  About 
one  tenth  of  the  city  is  built  over  catacombs,  great  cellar- 
like caves  made  by  digging  out  the  stone  from  the  deep- 
lying  quarries.  More  than  a  century  ago  some  of  the 
buildings  abov.e  these  caves  began  to  sink  in,  and  the  gov- 
ernment decided  to  use  the  catacombs  as  tombs.  They 
strengthened  the  roofs  and  divided  the  caves  into  rooms, 
filling  them  with  the  bones  of  the  dead  from  the  cemeteries 
of  Paris.     The  cemeteries  were  centuries  old,  and  so  full 

CARP.  EUROPE  —  8 


120 


FRANCE. 


that  it  is  estimated  that  the  skeletons  of  three  million  peo- 
ple were  taken  from  them  to  these  catacombs.  We  are  led 
by  our  guide  down  the  steps  into  the  caves  and  are  shov/n 
chapels  walled  with  human  bones.  The  sight  is  a  hor- 
rible one,  and  we  pant  for  pure  air. 

Leaving  the  catacombs,  we  spend  part  of  the  day  in  go- 
ing through  the  sewers,  taking  a  boat  and  riding  for  miles 
through  one  great  tunnel  after  another.  We  are  below  the 
water  mains,  in  tunnels  so  big  that  a  railroad  train  could 
run  through  them  without  touching  the  walls  or  the  roofs. 
A  wide  water  way  with  pavements  on  the  sides  runs  along 
the  bottom,  so  that  we  can  leave  the  boat  and  walk  along 
away  down  here  under  the  great  city.  The  water  comes 
from  the  Seine,  and  it  moves  so  fast  that  there  is  no  per- 
ceptible odor.  Paris  has  about  eight  hundred  miles  of 
such  tunnels,  so  many  that  if  they  were  placed  end  to  end 
they  would  reach  as  far  as  from  New  York  to  Detroit ;  they 

have  cost  a  vast  sum,  but  they 
have  made  Paris  healthful. 

We  finish  our  underground 
journey  near  the  church  of 
the  Madeleine,  in  one  of  the 
gayest  parts  of  gay  Paris,  and 
our  eyes  are  dazzled  as  we 
come  again  to  the  street.  We 
stop  at  the  flower  market  at 
the  side  of  the  church,  and 
buy  bouquets  of  the  little  old 
women  in  white  caps  and 
Notie  Lame.  clean   caHcoes  who  sit  there 

behind  counters  and  chat  with  their  customers. 

We  spend  a  few  minutes  in  the  Madeleine  and  later  on 
visit  Notre  Dame,  another  famous  church,  and  then  go  to 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  GOVERNED. 


121 


the  Pantheon,  where  many  of  the  noted  Frenchmen  are 
buried,  and  from  there  go  to  the  Hotel  des  InvaHdes  (o-tel' 
da-zaN-va-led')  to  take  a  look  at  the  tomb  of  Napoleon. 

The  Hotel  des  Invalides  was  founded  centuries  ago  as 
a  home  for  the  old  soldiers  of  France.  It  is  situated  on 
the  south  side  of  the 
Seine,  and  is  inhab- 
ited by  many  French 
veterans,  one  of 
whom  acts  as  our 
guide.  He  leads  us 
into  the  church,  and 
shows  us  the  great 
circular  crypt  under 
the  dome,  where  Na- 
poleon's sarcopha- 
gus lies.  We  lean 
over  the  marble  bal- 
ustrade and  look 
down  upon  an  im- 
mense block  of  red- 
dish brown  granite 
thirteen  feet  long, 
fourteen  feet  high, 
and  six  feet  wide,  resting  on  a  pedestal  of  poHshed  green 
stone.  It  is  a  gigantic  coffin  which  was  cut  from  one  solid 
block  in  the  quarries  of  Sweden,  and  brought  here  at  an 
enormous  expense.  The  crypt  is  floo'red  with  mosaic,  deco- 
rated with  crowns  of  laurel  in  stone.  There  are  monuments 
about  it,  and  the  old  soldier  points  out  this  quotation  from 
Bonaparte's  will  which  is  carved  on  its  entrance  :  "  I  desire 
that  my  ashes  may  repose  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine  in 
the  midst  of  the  French  people  whom  1  have  ever  loved." 


Tomb  of  Napoleon. 


122  FRANCE. 

We  have  seen  monuments  and  pictures  of  Napoleon, 
not  only  in  Paris,  but  in  all  the  cities  of  France.  He  is 
the  greatest  of  the  French  heroes,  and  as  you  read  more 
of  history  you  will  learn  how  wonderful  his  life  story  was. 
He  was  born  of  well-to-do  parents  in  the  little  French 
island  of  Corsica,  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  began 
his  studies  in  a  mihtary  school.  Later  he  entered  the 
army  in  Paris  and  was  made  a  lieutenant.  He  rapidly 
rose  from  one  rank  to  another,  until  at  last  he  commanded 
the  whole  of  the  French  army,  having  proved  himself  the 
greatest  general  of  Europe.  He  became  emperor  of  the 
French,  and  as  such  waged  wars  with  the  other  nations 
of  Europe,  conquering  them  one  after  another,  until  at 
last  it  seemed  that  he  might  make  himself  ruler  of  the 
whole  world.  Then  there  was  a  combination  of  the  Rus- 
sians, Germans,  English,  and  Austrians  against  him ;  they 
joined  armies  and  finally  defeated  him.  They  drove  him 
from  France,  telling  him  that  he  might  be  the  emperor 
of  the  island  of  Elba,  a  little  place  not  so  big  as  Corsica, 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.     This  was  in  1814. 

About  a  year  later  Napoleon  sHpped  out  of  Elba  and 
came  back  to  France.  As  soon  as  he  landed,  his  old 
soldiers  flocked  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  country ; 
the  French  government  gave  its  support,  and  he  soon 
had  another  large  army.  He  marched  against  the  Powers 
which  had  defeated  him,  and  a  great  battle  took  place 
at  Waterloo,  in  Belgium,  where  Napoleon,  although  he 
fought  very  bravely,  was  finally  defeated. 

After  that  his  enemies  resolved  that  Napoleon  was 
too  dangerous  a  character  to  be  allowed  any  freedom 
whatever.  They  decided  to  keep  him  a  prisoner  for 
life.  They  banished  him  to  the  rocky  little  island  of 
St.  Helena,  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  off  the  west  coast  of 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  GOVERNED.  1 23 

Africa,  and  kept  him  guarded  there  until  he  died.  He 
was  buried  in  St.  Helena,  but  years  afterwards  his  remains 
were  brought  back  to  France  and  placed  in  this  tomb. 

During  Napoleon's  time  France  became  the  greatest 
empire  of  Europe.  It  is  now  a  republic  in  which  the 
people  elect  their  own  rulers  and  govern  themselves. 
The  French  have  a  President,  just  as  we  have,  and  their 
laws  are  made  by  a  Senate  and  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
the  latter  corresponding  to  our  House  of  Representatives. 
It  is  but  a  few  steps  from  the  Hotel  des  Invalides  to 
the  Palace  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  a  magnificent 
building  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine.  We  stroll  along  the 
river  to  the  palace,  and  going  by  the  colossal  statues  of 
Prudence  and  Justice  at  the  entrance,  walk  up  the  stairs 
to  the  front  doors. 

We  present  our  cards  of  admission  from  the  American 
Minister  to  Paris  to  one  of  the  guards,  and  he  gives  us 
seats  in  the  gallery  of  the  Legislative  Hall,  from  where 
we  can  look  down  upon  the  chief  branch  of  the  Congress 
of  France.  The  room  is  in  the  shape  of  a  half  moon. 
The  members  sit  in  semicircular  rows  rising  one  above  the 
other  to  the  back  of  the  chamber.  The  President,  who 
holds  the  same  position  as  our  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  sits  on  a  rostrum  in  front. 

Notice  that  little  desk  in  front  of  the  President.  One 
of  the  members  has  just  left  his  seat  and  gone  into  it. 
He  is  addressing  the  Chamber,  but  he  is  speaking  in 
French  and  so  rapidly  that  we  cannot  understand  what 
he  says.  Now  he  has  finished  and  another  man  has  taken 
his  place.  In  our  Congress  the  members  rise  at  their 
seats  when  they  address  the  House,  but  here  every  one 
speaks  from  that  desk.  Watch  the  man  who  is  talking! 
See  how  he  gesticulates  and  how  excited  he  is!     Now 


124  FRANCE. 

he  is  interesting  his  fellows;  they  are  clapping  their 
hands,  and  making  even  more  fuss  than  the  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  did  the  day  we  were  there.  The 
President  raps  on  his  desk  with  a  paper  knife,  and  calls 
order,  but  the  men  do  not  mind  him.  See !  He  has  taken 
a  silver  bell  and  is  ringing  it.  Several  members  are 
shouting  for  order,  and  we  wish  we  knew  enough  French 
to  understand  the  cause  of  all  this  commotion. 

Leaving  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  we  go  to  the  Senate 
in  the  Palace  of  the  Luxembourg,  and  then  crossing  the 
Seine,  make  a  short- call  upon  the  President  of  France  in 
his  official  palace  on  the  Champs  Elysees.  From  him  and 
other  officials  we  learn  that  France  is  very  well  governed, 
although  many  of  its  methods  are  different  from  ours. 
The  President,  for  instance,  is  chosen  not  by  the  people 
through  an  electoral  college  as  in  the  United  States,  but 
by  the  majority  vote  of  the  Senate  and  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties. His  term  lasts  seven  years,  and  his  salary,  including 
the  amount  given  him  for  entertaining,  is  five  times  as 
much  as  that  of  our  President. 

He  has  a  cabinet  like  our  President,  but,  while  the 
President  of  the  United  States  may  select  any  American 
citizen  to  be  one  of  his  Ministers,  the  French  President 
must  choose  his  cabinet  from  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
He  may  conclude  treaties  with  other  powers,  but  must  not 
declare  war  unless  Congress  assents,  and  every  one  of  his 
acts  must  be  countersigned  by  a  Minister. 

We  call  upon  the  IV  inisters,  who  give  us  many  details  in 
regard  to  the  governmtnt.  The  Minister  for  the  Colonies 
gives  us  maps  showing  the  enormous  possessions  and  de- 
pendencies which  France  has  outside  Europe.  They  have 
a  total  area  larger  than  the  whole  United  States,  or  more 
than  sixteen  times  as  large  as  France  itself. 


THE  BUSIEST  WORKSHOP  OF  EUROPE. 


125 


XIV.     BELGIUM  — THE  BUSIEST  WORKSHOP 
OF  EUROPE. 

WE  have  left 
France  and 
are  traveling  through 
Belgium.  How  busy 
it  is  and  how  crowd- 
ed !  The  farms  are 
small  and  the  farm- 
houses are  scattered 
so  thickly  over  the 
landscape  that  the 
country  seems  one 
vast  town,  each  little 
farmhouse  having  its  big  garden  about  it.  The  people  are 
everywhere  working;  women  and  men  are  spading  the 
fields.    Many  women  are  hoeing  and  weeding  ;  we  see  them 

doing  all  sorts  of  farm 
work,  and  pass  many 
fields  in  which  they  are 
cutting  the  grass  and 
throwing  it  about,  mak- 
ing hay.  There  are  no 
fences.  The  crops  of 
wheat,  oats,  rye,  and 
flax  stand  out  like  the 
patches  of  a  crazy  quilt 
as  we  ride  through  them. 
The  Belgians  are  the  best  of  farmers,  and  they  cultivate 
their  little  land  so  well  that  it  produces  more  to  the  acre 
than  almost  any  other  part  of  Europe. 


making  hay. 


126 


BELGIUM. 


What  excellent  roads  !  They  are  even  better  than  the 
highways  of  France.  Many  are.  paved  with  stone  blocks 
fitted  closely  together,  and  some  are  shaded  by  great  forest 
trees  which  seem  centuries  old.  The  farmhouses  and  barns 
are  low,  one-story  buildings  roofed  with  red  tile  or  gray 

thatch.  See  those  chil- 
dren going  along  with 
their  mother.  They  all 
wear  wooden  shoes. 
This  is  so  of  most  of 
the  poor  people  of  Bel- 
gium, and  also  of  those 
of  Holland  and  many 
parts  of  northern  Eu- 
rope. 

Now  we  are  passing 
a  little  city  half  hidden 
in  smoke,  and  we  see 
almost  everywhere  the 
smokestacks  of  manu- 
facturing towns  stand- 
ing out  against  the 
blue  sky.  Even  in  the 
farm  districts  we  are 
rarely  beyond  the  hum 
of  weaving  machinery 
or  the  din  and  buzz  of 
mills  making  all  sorts  of  things  out  of  iron  and  steel. 
Belgium  is  one  of  the  great  workshops  of  Europe.  It  is 
only  one  fourth  as  big  as  Pennsylvania,  and  about  one 
eighteenth  as  big  as  France ;  but  nevertheless  it  is  quite 
important  in  its  commerce  and  trade. 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  this  is  so  :  Belgium  has  such  rich 


Belgian  Peasant. 


THE  BUSIEST   WORKSHOP  OF  EUROPE.  1 27 


In  Antwerp. 

soil  that  its  people  can  raise  nearly  all  their  own  food,  and 
in  the  south  it  is  so  underlaid  with  iron  and  coal  that  it 
can  have  all  sorts  of  factories.  It  has  also  many  railroads, 
good  waterways,  and  excellent  seaports  at  Ostend  and  Ant- 
werp (see  map,  p.  134),  so  that  it  can  easily  ship  goods  to 
and  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  In  addition  to  this  it  is 
surrounded  by  people  who  are  glad  to  buy  what  it  makes. 
On  the  south  live  the  rich,  thrifty  French,  and  on  the  east 
the  Germans,  while  on  the  north  in  Holland  are  the  Dutch, 
another  rich  business  nation.  The  English  are  just  across 
the  Channel,  and  railroads  connect  the  country  with  the 
Rhine  and  all  parts  of  Europe. 

In  addition  the  Belgians  are  noted  for  their  industry  and 
their  skill  in  handling  machinery.  They  were  famous  as 
manufacturers  even  before  the  discovery  of  America,  when 
their  cities  were  among  the  richest  of  Europe.  During 
the  Middle  Ages  Antwerp  was  almost  as  important  as 


128  BELGIUM. 

London,  and  ships  from  everywhere  came  there  for 
fine  goods.  Then  a  thousand  vessels  could  be  seen  at  one 
time  in  the  river  Scheldt,  and  five  hundred  loaded  wagons 
passed  daily  through  the  gates  of  the  city.  The  people 
then  made  so  much  money  in  weaving  fine  cloths,  in  other 
industries,  and  in  commerce,  that  the  leading  men  dressed 
in  velvets  and  satins.  They  had  their  guilds  or  trades 
unions,  and  in  the  great  cities  we  shall  see  the  old  town 
halls,  magnificent  buildings  put  up  at  that  time. 

The  burgomasters  or  mayors  of  the  principal  towns 
were  very  proud.  It  is  related  that  when  they  once 
went  to  Paris  to  pay  homage  to  King  John  of  France 
they  were  displeased  because  they  were  not  furnished 
cushions  at  one  of  the  banquets  held  in  their  honor.  They 
wished  to  show  the  French  how  they  felt,  and,  as  the 
story  goes,  took  off  their  velvet  cloaks  all  covered  with 
embroidery  and  sat  upon  them.  When  the  banquet  was 
over,  they  left  their  cloaks  on  the  seats.  They  were  re- 
minded that  they  had  forgotten  their  cloaks,  whereupon 
one  of  them  scornfully  answered,  "We  Flemish  are  not, 
accustomed  to  carry  our  cushions  away  after  dinner." 

In  traveling  about  we  find  that  the  Belgians  are  still 
making  beautiful  cloth.  They  have  large  woolen  and  linen 
mills  at  Liege  and  Ghent,  and  also  factories  in  which  thou- 
sands of  women  and  girls  are  weaving  the  cotton  from  our 
southern  States.  We  go  to  Tournai  to  see  how  they  make 
Brussels  carpets,  and  in  the  outskirts  of  Brussels  and  Mech- 
lin we  spend  some  time  watching  the  manufacture  of  lace. 

Belgium  produces  some  of  the  finest  lace  of  the  world. 
Its  soil  and  climate  are  especially  suited  for  flax.  It  grows 
almost  everywhere.  We  travel  through  fields  where 
roughly  dressed  men  and  women  wearing  wooden  shoes 
are    kneeling,   weeding    the   flax^    and    through    villages 


THE  BUSIEST  WORKSHOP  OF  EUROPE. 


129 


where  they  are   breaking  it   and  turning   it  into   thread 
for  Hnen  and  lace. 

There  are  thousands  of  women  and  girls  in  Belgium 
who  do  nothing  else  but  make  lace ;  and  in  some  places 
almost  all  are  engaged  in  this  work.  The  lace  is  made 
upon  pillows,  the  design  being  marked  oiit  with  pins. 
Every  worker  has  her  own  pillow,  and  only  one  can  work 
on  one  piece  at  a  time.  The  threads  are  wound  in  and 
out  through  the  pins,  over  and  under,  making  the  lace. 
The  finer  pieces  require  months,  for  in  some  of  them 
eight  hundred  different  threads  are  needed,  and  a  girl 
may  be  weeks  in  making  one  handkerchief. 


A  Brussels  Milk  Cart. 

Some  lace  is  white  and  some  black.  It  is  of  many  dif- 
ferent grades,  each  of  which  has  its  own  name.  Much  of 
it  is  made  into  vests,  collars,  and  cuffs,  some  into  fans,  and 
some  into  dresses  for  babies  and  brides,  a  fine  lace  dress  often 
costing  as  much  as  ten  thousand  dollars.  We  are  shown 
lace  fans  worth  fifty  dollars  apiece,  and  find  it  easy  to  hold 
in  one  hand  a  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  very  fine  lace. 

We  spend  some  time  at  Brussels,  the  chief  industrial  city 


I30 


BELGIUM. 


of  Belgium,  and  also  its  capital.  It  contains  more  than 
half  a  million  people  and  has  so  many  fine  buildings  that 
it  reminds  us  of  Paris.  We  walk  along  the  boulevards, 
watching  the  people  chatting  at  the  tables  outside  the 
caf^s  ;  and  stop  to  buy  some  lace  at  the  principal  stores  in 
the  Boulevard  Anspach.     This  street  is  one  of  the  finest 


" — we  visit  the  palace  of  the  king." 

of  Brussels,  and  strange  to  say  it  is  built  over  a  river. 
When  the  city  was  first  started  it  was  on  the  banks  of  the 
Senne ;  but  the  people  thought  it  unhealthf ul  to  have  an 
open  stream  running  right  through  the  town,  so  they  built 
a  wall  over  it  and  covered  it  with  stone  and  earth ;  and 
now  you  have  to  go  out  of  the  city  to  know  that  a  river 
runs  through  it. 

Later  on  we  visit  the  palace  of  the  king,  spend  a  few 
hours  in  the  Belgian  Parliament,  and  drive  through  the 


THE  BUSIEST  WORKSHOP  OF   EUROPE.  13 1 

great  park  outside  the  town.  We  go  to  the  museums  and 
the  markets,  asking  questions  everywhere,  but  even  those 
of  us  who  speak  French  have  great  difficulty  in  making 
themselves  understood.  Many  of  the  Belgians  understand 
neither  French  nor  English,  and  more  than  one  half  of 
them  speak  Flemish,  which  is  somewhat  like  a  mixture 
of  German  and  Dutch.  The  other  part  speak  French,  but 
even  they  have  many  strange  words,  and  it  is  only  when 
we  meet  the  people  of  the  educated  classes  that  we  can 
make  ourselves  understood. 

The  Belgians  have  been  greatly  affected  by  the  nations 
about  them.  In  the  south  and  in  the  cities  they  are  much 
like  the  French.  They  speak  more  French  than  Flemish, 
and,  like  the  French,  they  are  fond  of  music  and  dancing. 
Every  large  town  has  its  park  where,  on  holidays,  the 
bands  play,  and  the  people  walk  about  or  dance.  Every 
city  has  its  amateur  musical  clubs;  and  Bruges,  Antwerp, 
and  Ghent  have  annual  musical  contests,  where  the  best 
performers  get  prizes. 

We  are  dehghted  with  the  chimes.  Belgium  is  a  land 
of  fine  bells ;  they  are  rung  not  only  in  the  church  steeples, 
but  also  in  the  towers  of  the  town  halls,  some  towers  having 
as  many  as  one  hundred  bells  which  are  rung  in  chimes 
every  day.  In  the  large  cities  the  bell  ringer  is  an  accom- 
plished musician,  Who  plays  upon  the  bells,  using  keys  like 
those  of  an  organ,  except  that  they  are  much  larger.  The 
work  is  so  hard  that  the  performer  wears  thick  leather 
gloves,  and  it  takes  so  much  strength  that  even  a  strong 
man  becomes  exhausted  at  playing  the  bells  in  a  quarter 
of  an  hour. 

In  northern  Belgium  the  people  are  more  like  the  Hol- 
landers, and  we  need  an  interpreter  almost  everywhere, 
for  they  use  many  Dutch  words. 


132  BELGIUM. 

We  make  an  excursion  from  Brussels  out  to  the  battle- 
field of  Waterloo,  where  Napoleon  and  the  French  were 
defeated  by  the  allied  armies  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
in  1815.  It  is  only  a  half  hour  by  train  and  a  short  ride  by 
carriage  to  the  bottom  of  the  great  hill  which  has  been 
thrown  up  in  the  center  of  the  battlefield  as  a  monument 
of  the  event.     On  the  top  of  this  hill,  on  a   pedestal   of 

granite,  a  bronze  lion,  the 
emblem  of  Belgium,  has 
been  erected.  We  climb 
up  and  stand  beside  the 
lion  while  our  guide  de- 
scribes the  stirring  scenes 
of  the  battle.     The  coun- 

Monument  at  Waterloo.  ^  n      1        .    •  -i 

try  all  about  is  covered 

with  green.     The  land  is  now  cultivated  close  up  to  the 

hill,  and  as  we  watch  the  farmers  working  so  peacefully 

among  their  crops,  we  cannot  realize  that  upon  that  same 

ground  was  fought  one  of  the  greatest  battles  of  history. 

We  ask  our  guide  about  the  battle,  and  he  describes  it  in 

vivid  language,  although  he  evidently  favors  the  French. 

He  tells  us  just  how  the  battle  should  have  been  fought, 

and  apparently  thinks  that  if  he  had  been  present  to  advise 

Napoleon  the  French  might  have  conquered.     He  tells  us 

how  the  people  in  Brussels  expected  Napoleon  to  conquer, 

and  how  they  were  surprised  at  the  news  of  his  defeat, 

repeating  Byron's  poem  describing  Brussels  on  the  eve  of 

the  battle  — 

"  There  was  a  sound  of  revelry  by  night. 
And  Belgium's  capital  had  gathered  then 

Her  beauty  and  her  chivalry,  and  bright 
The  lamps  shone  o'er  fair  women  and  brave  men ; 

A  thousand  hearts  beat  happily ;  and  when 
Music  arose  with  its  voluptuous  swell, 


A  COUNTRY  BELOW  THE  SEA.  1 35 

Lying  at  the  western  end  of  the  great  plain  which  ex- 
tends across  Europe  from  the  Ural  Mountains  to  the 
North  Sea,  the  country  was  formed  by  the  earth  washings 
from  the  Alps  and  highlands  of  Germany  and  France, 
brought  down  by  the  Rhine,  the  Maas,  and  the  Scheldt. 
The  land  is  so  low  that  these  streams  have  been  walled  in 


to  prevent  the  spring  floods  from  covering  it,  and  enor- 
mous dikes  or  embankments  of  wood,  stone,  and  earth  have 
been  built  along  the  coast  to  keep  the  sea  from  rushing  in 
and  drowning  the  people. 

Less  than  one  half  the  country  is  so  high  that  no  walls 
are  needed.  The  rest  is  the  result  of  a  long  fight  be- 
tween the  Dutch  people  and  their  enemy,  the  sea.  The 
dikes  are  their  fortifications  made  to  keep  old  Neptune 
out.  They  have  been  centuries  in  tearing  their  land  away 
from  the  waters.  Acre  by  acre,  farm  by  farm,  township 
by  township,  and  county  by  county,  they  have  wrested  it 
from  the  sea,  until  now  they  have  one  of  the  best  little 
countries  of  Europe. 

They  accomplished  it  in  this  way.  First  they  marked 
out  a  certain  piece  of  swampy  land,  and  put  walls  about  it, 
and  then  pumped  up  the  water  by  windmills  into  canals  so 
that  at  last  it  flowed  out  into  the  ocean.  They  made  ditches 
to  drain  the  inclosed  land,  and  when  it  became  dry  they 
cut  it  up  into  fields,  planted  trees,  and  built  houses.  Then' 
they  marked  out  another  piece  and  reclaimed  that  the  same 
way.  They  had  to  keep  the  pumps  going,  and  we  shall 
see  windmills  everywhere  tossing  their  huge  arms  about, 
raising  the  water ;  for  it  requires  thousands  of  windmills 
and  many  steam  pumps  to  keep  Holland  dry.  We  shall 
see  how  the  fight  with  the  ocean  is  still  going  on  when  we 
visit  the  dikes,  and  how  the  brave  Dutch  are  ever  victori- 
ous.    They  are  getting  more  land  every  year,  and  tb^  are 


136  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

now  building  dikes  to  drain  the  Zuider  Zee,  a  great  bed  of 
shallow  water  three-fourths  as  big  as  the  state  of  Rhode 
Island. 

Is  not  this  wonderful  ?  It  .seems  even  more  wonderful 
as  we  go  along  the  coast  and  see  how  the  great  dikes  are 
built.  Most  of  them  are  as  tall  as  a  three-story  house,  and 
so  wide  that  two  carriages  could  easily  be  driven  upon 
them  side  by  side  without  touching.  There  are  so  many 
dikes  in  Holland  that  if  they  could  be  lifted  up,  placed 
end  to  end,  and  dropped  down  upon  our  country,  they 
would  make  a  great  wall  reaching  from  Boston  clear  across 
the  Appalachian  Mountains  to  Chicago,  and  on  to  the 
Mississippi  River,  across  Iowa  to  the  Missouri,  and  hun- 
dreds of  miles  on  into  Nebraska. 

In  making  a  dike  the  first  thing  is  to  get  a  foundation. 
Great  forest  trees  are  trimmed  off  and  driven  down  deep 
into  the  sand  in  two  wide  rows  facing  the  sea.  These 
mighty  fences  are  walled  with  planks  which  are  studded  with 
an  armor  of  flat-headed  nails  so  that  the  teredo,  the  wood- 
eating  sea  worm,  cannot  get  at  them.  Now,  huge  blocks  of 
granite  or  other  stone,  brought  mostly  on  ships  from  Nor- 
way, are  thrown  in  between  the  walls,  and  on  the  top  earth 
is  added,  and  so,  gradually,  a  great  rampart  is  built  up. 
Some  of  the  dikes  are  faced  with  masonry,  and  others 
have  walls  of  basketwork  to  hold  in  the  stone  and  earth. 
Trees  are  planted  on  top,  and  grass  is  sown  upon  the  top 
and  sides,  that  the  roots*  may  aid  in  binding  the  whole 
together. 

The  dikes  are  carefully  guarded.  During  the  winter 
they  are  watched  by  men  day  and  night.  Then  Neptune 
seems  most  angry  at  the  loss  of  his  territory,  and  in  his 
rage  he  drives  the  sea  almost  to  the  top  of  the  dikes.  He  is 
always  watching  for  a  crack  or  a  break,  which  he  knows  he 


A  COUNTRY  BELOW  THE  SEA. 


137 


can  quickly  enlarge.  The  people  appreciate  the  danger, 
and  they  have  watchmen  to  warn  them.  At  critical  times 
the  alarm  bells  are  rung,  and  every  one  hurries  to  help 
build  the  dike  higher,  or  to  repair  it.  Notwithstanding  all 
this,  the  ocean  sometimes  breaks  through,  as  was  the  case 
about  seventy  years  before  Columbus  discovered  America, 
when  a  tidal  wave  swept  in,  flooding  towns  and  villages, 
and  drowning  more  than  one  thousand  people. 


'The  canals  of  Holland  are  alnnost  as  wonderful  as  the  dikes," 


The  canals  of  Holland  are  almost  as  wonderful  as  the 
dikes.  There  are  about  two  thousand  miles  of  them  in 
the  country ;  some  great  ship  watei*  ways,  and  others  little 
ditches  dividing  the  fields  like  fences,  the  bridges  with  bars 
across  them  serving  for  gates.  The  biggest  canals  con- 
nect the  great  cities  of  Holland  and  the  sea.  Amsterdam 
has  the  North  Sea  Canal,  a  wide  water  way  fifteen  miles 
long  and  twenty-five  feet  deep.     This  canal  is  walled  by 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  Q 


13^ 


THE  NETHERLANDS. 


r--w-'' 


J^v-i^-'-'-^i- 


-m^' 


i^:.M: 


enormous  dikes,  and  it  flows  above  the  rest  of  the  country 
out  to  the  sea,  where  there  are  great  gates  to  keep  the 
ocean  from  rushing  in. 

In  many  Dutch  cities  the  canals  form  the  principal 
streets,  and  in  the  country  they  serve  as  highways  and 
roads.     As  we  travel  through  Holland  we  see  huge  ships 

apparently  sailing 
through  the  green 
grass,  and  some- 
times notice  their 
tall  masts  moving 
along  above  the  tops 
of  the  trees  which 
now  and  then  line 
the  canals.  Here  is 
a  boat  loaded  with 
wheat  hauled  along 
by  a  horse  on  the 
bank.  There  is  one 
filled  with  vegeta- 
bles dragged  onward 
by  two  men  who 
bend  over  and  pull 
at  a  rope  attached 
to  its  mast,  and  there 
is  another  loaded  with  hay  moved  by  a  woman,  a  boy,  and 
a  dog,  all  harnessed  together.  The  boy  and  the  woman 
bend  almost  double,  forcing  the  boat  through  the  water  by 
throwing  their  weight  against  the  wide  straps  over  their 
breasts  to  which  the  towline  is  fastened.  Both  wear 
wooden  shoes,  and  we  cannot  see  how  they  can  move 
along  as  they  do.  Other  boats  are  being  pushed  onward 
with  poles  from  the  decks,  and  not  a  few  are  aided  by  sails. 


A  COUNTRY  BELOW  THE  SEA. 


139 


But  what  are  those  queer  long-legged  birds  we  see  wad- 
ing about  through  the  ditches,  poking  their  heads  into  the 
mud  ?  Those  are  storks,  and  they  are  after  frogs,  worms, 
and  other  things  which  live  in  the  canals  and  the  ditches. 
The  storks  are  great  friends  of  the  people,  for  they  eat  the 
reptiles  which  destroy  the  dikes  and  embankments.  We 
see  storks'  nests. in  the  trees  and  on  the  chimneys  of  the 
farmhouses,  and  frequently  spy  one  of  the  great  birds  rest- 
ing on  one  leg  on  the  roof. 


"Nearly  every  farmer  has  one." 

Notice  the  windmills.  They  stand  in  rows  along  the 
canals,  and  we  often  count  a  hundred  in  sight.  Nearly 
every  farmer  has  one.  Each  mill  consists  of  a  huge 
tower  with  arms  or  sails  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet 
long.  The  tower  is  so  large  around  that  the  first  story  is 
often  used  as  a  house.  The  most  of  the  windmills  are  for 
pumping  water  from  one  level  to  another  in  draining  the 


140  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

fields,  but  others  grind  corn,  and  furnish  the  motive  power 
for  sawmills  and  factories.  Holland  is  so  flat  that  the 
winds  from  the  ocean  blow  as  regularly  as  at  sea,  and 
the  mills  can  be  relied  upon  to  do  their  work  every  day. 

Many  of  the  country  roads  are  along  the  canals,  and 
near  them  are  railroads  and  steam  tramways.  Holland 
has  a  good  railroad  system,  and  steam  and  electric  tram- 
ways have  been  built  all  over  the  country.  We  travel 
mostly  on  the  tramways,  stopping  now  to  explore  a  quaint 
city  or  village,  and  now  to  chat  with  the  farmers  about 
their  cattle  and  corn. 

It  is  summer,  but  the  fresh  air  from  the  sea  keeps  us 
delightfully  cool.  How  beautiful  it  is !  There  are  rows 
of  tall  willows  along  many  of  the  canals,  anxi  the  combina- 
tion of  water  and  green  fields  forms  ever  changing  pic- 
tures. We  stand  on  the  bridges  and  watch  the  fat  cattle 
grazing.  How  clean  they  are  and  how  smooth!  They 
look  as  though  they  had  been  curried.  They  are  eating 
from  feeding  boxes  out  in  the  fields.  Although  the  grass 
grows  luxuriantly,  many  of  the  people  feed  their  cows  in 
the  pastures,  and  they  know  just  what  food  will  produce 
the  most  milk.  The  Dutch  people  are  noted  for  their 
delicious  butter  and  cheese,  which  they  export  so  largely 
to  England  that  Holland  is  sometimes  called  the  dairy 
farm  of  Great  Britain.  Notice  how  careful  they  are 
of  the  cattle.  Many  of  the  fine  cows  are  covered  with 
blankets  to  keep  off  the  flies.  In  the  spring  they  have 
covers  to  protect  them  from  the  cold  rains,  and  in  the 
winter  they  are  brought  into  the  house  and  stabled  under 
the  same  roof  as  the  family. 

Holland  has  but  few  barns.  WooQ  is  scarce,  and  all 
stone  has  to  be  imported,  so  the  people  find  it  cheaper  to 
build  one  larg^  house,  and  give  up  a  part  of  it  to  hay  lofts 


A  COUNTRY   BELOW  THE   SEA.  I41 

and 'cattle,  than  to  have  separate  stables  or  sheds.  The 
most  of  the  houses  have  low  walls  and  very  high  roofs ; 
the  walls  are  whitewashed,  and  the  roofs  are  of  red  tile  or 
gray  thatch  made  so  steep  that  the  rain  quickly  runs  off. 
Every  house  is  kept  clean  inside  and  out,  even  the  stable 
being  frequently  scrubbed.  Most  cows  have  their  daily 
cold  bath,  and  in  some  stables  there  is  a  ring  in  the  rafter 
over  each  cow  to  which  her  tail  is  tied  up  while  milking. 

In  the  summer  the  cows  stay  in  the  fields  and  the  peo- 
ple go  out  to  piilk  them.  See,  there  is  a  girl  milking  now. 
Her  sleeves  are  rolled  up  to  her  elbows,  and  she  sits  on 
the  heels  of  her  wooden  shoes  as  she  draws  out  the  milk 
in  white  streams.  There  comes  a  man  with  a  wagon  full 
of  brass  cans.  He  has  driven  across  the  bridge  into  the 
pasture,  the  girl  brings  her  pailful  of  milk,  and  pours  it 
into  one  of  the  cans,  and  goes  on  to  milk  more. 

The  Dutch  are  excellent  farmers.  We  pass  rich  fields 
of  wheat,  barley,  and  oats,  and  see  everywhere  potatoes 
and  other  vegetables  growing.  We  spend  some  time  in 
the  great  flower  gardens  about  Haarlem,  where  they  raise 
the  finest  of  tulips,  hyacinths,  and  gladioli,  exporting  the 
bulbs  to  all  countries.  More  than  a  million  dollars'  worth 
are  shipped  away  every  year,  including  vast  quantities  to 
the  United  States. 

The  Dutch  are  fond  of  flowers,  and  at  one  time  they 
went  almost  wild  over  tulips.  It  was  at  about  the  time 
Boston  was  founded.  Then  Holland  had  tulip  bulbs  that 
actually  sold  for  their  weight  in  gold  and  some  that  brought 
much  more,  for  it  is  said  that  one  kind  of  bulb,  known  as 
the  Semper  Aiigusttts,  was  worth  an  amount  equal  to 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  of  our  money. 

The  tulip  bulb  is  somewhat  like  an  onion,  and  a  story  is 
told  of  a  rich  merchant  who  was  showing  one  of  the  bulbs 


142  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

to  a  friend,  when  a  sailor  came  in  and  announced  that  a 
cargo  of  silk  had  arrived.  The  merchant  in  his  hurry  laid 
down  his  Semper  Augustus,  and  the  sailor,  thinking  it  an 
onion,  picked  it  up  and  went  away  with  it.  When  the 
merchant  came  back  he  was  almost  crazy  at  the  loss  of  his 
treasure.  He  rushed  through  the  town  looking  for  the 
sailor,  only  to  find  that  the  sailor  had  sHced  up  the  bulb  to 
eat  with  his  lunch,  before  he  had  found  it  was  a  tulip  and 
not  an  onion. 

Take  a  look  at  that  crowd  coming  upon  the  opposite  side 
of  the  canal.  What  good  faces  they  have.  Both  men  and 
women  are  rosy  cheeked  and  bright  eyed.  It  is  a  holiday, 
and  they  have  on  their  best  clothes.  The  men  wear  short 
jackets  and  full  baggy  black  velvet  trousers,  held  up  by 
wide  belts  at  the  waist,  and  fastened  with  silver  buckles  as 
big  as  the  palm  of  your  hand.  They  have  on  caps  with 
wide  brims,  and  their  long  hair  is  cut  straight  off  at  the 
neck. 

The  women  wear  short  skirts  and  some  are  bare  armed. 
What  is  that  bright  stuff  on  their  heads }  It  looks  like 
silver  or  gold  shining  out  through  their  lace  caps.  There 
are  horns  of  gold  sticking  out  on  each  side  of  their  eyes. 
Those  are  the  helmets  which  many  Dutch  women  and  girls 
wear  on  special  occasions.  They  are  thin  plates  of  gold  or 
silver,  or  imitations  of  those  metals,  so  made  that  they  fit 
the  head  like  a  cap,  almost  covering  the  hair.  The  gold 
ones  are  very  costly,  and  are  kept  in  the  family  from  one 
generation  to  another. 

Now  look  at  their  feet.  Did  you  ever  see  such  shoes } 
They  are  as  white  as  newly  planed  pine.  They  are  wood, 
and  though  they  look  clumsy,  they  serve  very  well,  espe- 
cially in  a  damp  country  like  Holland,  where  it  rains  so 
frequently  that  the  ground  is  often  as  soft  as  a  sponge. 


A  COUNTRY  BELOW  THE  SEA. 


143 


"The  women  wear  short  skirts." 

There  comes  a  party  of  little  children !  Their  fathers 
and  mothers  are  watching  us  from  the  bank,  and  the 
little  ones  have  stopped  for  a  moment  to  play.  They  are 
dressed  much  like  their  parents.  How  they  run  over  the 
ground  in  their  thick  wooden  shoes !  I  am  sure  not  one 
of  us  could  run  any  faster.  Observe  how  the  little  ones 
greet  their  parents,  and  how  they  hold  on  to  them  as  they 
stand  open  mouthed  and  stare  at  our  boat.  The  Dutch  are 
fond  of  their  children  ;  they  send  them  to  school  and  give 
them  quite  as  many  advantages  as  we  have  at  home. 

There  are  few  people  better  educated  than  the  peo- 
ple of  Holland,  and  there  are  none  who  have  more  of 
the  elements  which  make  up  really  good  men  and  good 
women.  They  have  had  to  fight  so  hard  to  build  up  their 
country  and  keep  back  the  sea,  that  they  have  become 


144  THE  NETHERLANDS.  ^      • 

strong  and  self-reliant.  They  have  had  to  watch  their  dikes 
so  carefully  that  they  have  grown  cautious,  and  the  long  con- 
tinued work  of  building  the  dikes  has  made  them  patient 
and  industrious.  Being  on  the  sea",  they  have  become  a 
nation  of  traders,  and  have  grown  rich  by  their  thrift. 

There  is  one  thing  for  which  the  Dutch  are  especially 
noted.  All  travelers  speak  about  it.  Look  around  and 
see  if  you  can  guess  what  it  is  !^  Observe  the  fresh  paint 
on  the  bridges,  the  new  whitewash  on  the  houses.  Look 
down  on  the  deck  of  our  canal  boat !  See  how  it  has 
been  scoured  until  it  is  as  white  as  snow.  How  clean 
everything  is !  The  Dutch  are  famous  for  keeping  things 
clean ;  they  are  so  neat  that  it  is  sometimes  oppressive. 
We  walk  on  our  tiptoes  when  we  enter  the  houses,  for 
the  floors  fairly  shine,  and  the  front  steps  are  washed 
every  day.  In  our  early  morning  walks  through  the  city 
we  have  to  go  carefully  to  keep  from  being  spattered  with 
water.  Bare-armed  housemaids  in  white  caps  and  short 
dresses  are  scrubbing  the  streets  and  washing  down  the 
house  fronts.  Each  girl  has  a  mop  on  a  long  pole  so  that 
she  can  reach  every  crack  and  corner.  She  first  washes 
the  windows  and  walls,  and  then  scrubs  off  the  doorsteps 
and  pavement. 

XVL     IN   THE   DUTCH   CITIES  — AMSTERDAM, 
ROTTERDAM,   AND   THE    HAGUE. 

ABOUT  one  third  of  the  people  of  Holland  live  in  towns. 
There  are  twenty-eight  towns  of  more  than  fifteen 
thousand  inhabitants,  and  several  large  cities.  Amsterdam, 
the  chief  seaport,  is  almost  as  big  as  Boston.  Rotterdam, 
another  large  commercial  center,  is  as  big  as  Pittsburg, 


IN  THE  DUTCH   CITIES.  ^    I45 

and  The  Hague  (hag),  the  capital  of  Holland,  is  about  the 
size  of  Indianapolis.  Amsterdam  and  Rotterdam  have 
ship  canals  connecting  them  with  the  ocean,  so  that  big 
vessels  come  into  the  cities  to  load  and  unload. 


"  —  they  largely  take  the  place  of  streets." 

Almost  all  the  Dutch  towns  are  cut  up  by  canals,  and 
in  some  the  water  ways  are  so  many  that  they  largely 
take  the  place  of  streets,  boats  containing  all  kinds  of 
goods  being  dragged  through  them.  The  city  canals  are 
walled  with  stone  and  the  ways  along  their  banks  smoothly 
paved.  In  some  places  the  houses  are  built  close  to  the 
canals,  so  that  the  children  can  easily  lean  out  of  the  win- 
dows and  drop  their  fishing  lines  into  the  water ;  or,  in  the 
winter,  when  everything  is  frozen,  can  put  on  their  skates 
inside  the  house,  and  slide  off  to  school.  In  both  city  and 
country,  a  large  part  of  the  winter  travel  and  traffic  of 
Holland  is  on  the  ice  of  the  canals. 

The  Dutch  cities  have  fine  buildings  ;  they  have  beauti- 


146  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

ful  palaces,  large  stores  and  banks,  free  libraries  and 
museums,  schools  of  all  kinds,  concert  halls  and  theaters, 
public  gardens  and  parks.  The  people  dwell  in  large 
houses,  several  families  often  living  in  the  same  house. 

Let  us  take  a  stroll  through  Amsterdam,  and  see  for 
ourselves  how  a  Dutch  city  looks.  We  start  at  the  Dam, 
the  chief  public  square.  This  is  one  of  the  great  business 
centers.  Here  are  the  stock  exchange,  the  king's  palace, 
and  many  fine  stores  and  hotels.  We  climb  up  the  steps 
inside  the  palace  tower,  and  when  we  come  out  at  the  top, 
we  are  high  above  the  biggest  city  of  the  Netherlands. 

Look  at  the  vast  expanse  of  red-tiled  roofs  below  us. 
They  are  ridge-shaped,  and  out  of  their  sides  little  dormer 
windows  faced  with  white  curtains  protrude.  See  the 
broad  canals  running  in  all  directions  through  the  red 
field.  There  are  almost  as  many  canals  here  as  in  Venice. 
They  divide  the  city  up  into  islands,  and  three  hundred 
bridges  are  required  to  connect  the  islands  with  one 
another.  Notice  the  ships  moving  along  through  the 
streets ;  in  the  wider  canals  the  masts  are  above  the  roofs 
of  the  houses.     Isn't  it  strange  ? 

Now  look  beyond  the  red  field  of  houses.  See  that 
great  silver  sheet  out  there  upon  which  the  sun  dances. 
That  is  the  wide  Zuider  Zee  (zoi'der  za),  and  that  canal 
going  through  it,  bearing  a  stately  line  of  ships,  is  Amster- 
dam's chief  highway  to  the  ocean. 

Now  look  down  there  at  the  docks  in  the  city !  This  is 
one  of  the  great  shipping  stations  of  Europe.  There  are 
vessels  there  from  Java,  Sumatra,  and  almost  every  other 
part  of  the  world.  Amsterdam  has  been  a  noted  port  for 
hundreds  of  years,  and  it  is  still  one  of  the  chief  coffee  and 
spice  markets.  The  Dutch,  although  they  own  but  a  small 
part  of  Europe,  have  many  colonies  in  the  East  and  West 


IN  THE  DUTCH  CITIES. 


147 


Indies ;  and  their  great  steamers  are  always  carrying  goods 
to  the  colonies  and  bringing  sugar,  coffee,  and  spices  and 
other  things  home. 
The  Dutch  own  more 
than  sixty  times  as 
much  land  outside 
Holland  as  in  the 
whole  of  Holland  it- 
self. 

Now  turn  your  eyes 
again  from  the  water 
to  the  land.  See  the 
green  fields  beyond 
the  red  city,  striped 
with  silvery  canals. 
Those  white  spots  on 
the  landscape  are  cat- 
tle, and  the  little  round 
towers,  each  flinging 
its  arms  about  in  cir- 
cular motion  as  though 
it  were  practicing 
some  new  exercise 
with  Indian  clubs,  are 
windmills.  What  a 
lot  of  towns  and  vil- 
lages there  are  scattered 
over  the  country  —  those 
white  cottages  are  the 
homes  of  the  farmers. 

Let  us  climb  down  and  take  a  walk  through  the  streets. 
How  tall  the  houses  are  and  how  sharp  their  peaked 
roofs!     Most  of  them  are  of  five  and  six  stories.     Many 


Canal  in  Winter. 


148  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

lean  far  from  the  perpendicular,  as  though  about  to  topple 
over  into  the  canals,  or  to  fall  on  the  shoulders  of  their 
neighbors  across  the  way. 

There  is  a  new  house  just  going  up,  and  farther  on 
foundations  are  being  laid.  Let  us  stop  and  see  how  they 
are  worliing.  The  men  are  driving  great  piles  down  into 
the  earth.  The  land  beneath  Amsterdam  is  as  soft  as  a 
swamp,  and  these  streets  and  all  the  houses  and  buildings 
about  us  are  standing  on  the  tops  of  trees  driven  down 
into  the  ground.  This  made  Erasmus,  a  noted  scholar  of 
Rotterdam,  say  that  "  the  people  of  Amsterdam  live  like 
birds,  in  the  tree  tops.'* 

Sometimes  the  piles  settle  unevenly,  causing  the  build- 
ings to  lean.  They  seldom  fall  down,  however,  so  we  may 
walk  on  and  feel  perfectly  safe.  Nevertheless  we  must 
be  careful  at  the  bridges,  for  many  of  them  are  moved 
about  now  and  then  to  let  the  boats  through,  and  a  stray 
step  might  drop  us  into  the  water. 

Take  another  look  at  the  houses !  See  how  clean  they 
are  and  how  neat.  Observe  those  little  mirrors  set  at 
right  angles  with  the  walls  just  outside  each  window.  Can 
it  be  that  the  people  lean  out  for  fresh  air  while  making 
their  toilets.'*  No!  Those  mirrors  are  to  let  the  owners 
learn  what  is  going  on  in  the  street  without  looking  out. 
They  are  so  arranged  that  a  woman  can  knit  away  in  her 
chair  and  see  all  who  pass  by.  She  can  see  her  callers 
before  they  ring  the  door  bell,  and  can  watch  her  children 
coming  home  from  school  when  they  are  still  blocks  away.  ' 

Let  us  enter  one  of  the  stores.  The  prices  marked  on 
the  goods  are  in  Dutch,  and  it  takes  some  time  for  us  to 
tell  just  what  things  cost.  The  Dutch  money  is  in  guldens 
or  florins,  and  cents.  A  gulden  is  a  silver  coin  a  little  larger 
than  our  twenty-five  cent  piece.     It  is  worth  one  hundred 


IN  THE  DUTCH   CITIES.  I49 

Dutch  cents,  or  forty  cents  of  our  money.  There  are  half 
guldens,  quarter  guldens,  tenth  guldens,  and  twentieth  gul- 
dens, each  of  which  has  its  own  name.  The  quarter  gulden 
is  called  a  kwartje,  the  tenth  a  dubbeltje,  and  the  twentieth 
a  stuyver,  the  last  being  worth  about  two  cents  of  our 
money.  There  are  copper  cents  and  half-cents,  each  worth 
respectively  two  fifths  and  one  fifth  of  an  American  cent. 
There  is  also  a  silver  coin,  the  two  and  one-half  gulden 
piece,  the  size  of  our  dollar,  and  there  are  gold  pieces 
worth  ten  guldens,  or  four  dollars  of  our  money. 

We  spend  a  ten-gulden  piece  in  making  purchases,  and 
in  change  for  our  gold  are  given  a  handful  of  kwartjes, 
dubbeltjes,  and  stuyvers,  and  also  a  good  lot  of  Dutch  cents. 
It  really  seems  that  we  have  more  money  now  than  when 
we  came  in,  and  we  generously  reward  the  first  beggar  we 
meet  with  ten  copper  coins,  which  are  worth  not  more  than 
two  cents. 

Fortunately  our  merchant  speaks  English,  and  we  have 
no  trouble  in  making  ourselves  understood.  We  find  the 
Dutch  language  difficult  to  pronounce,  and  make  our  way 
about  by  signs  when  our  guides  are  not  with  us.  The 
Dutch  is  one  of  the  Teutonic  tongues,  being  somewhat 
like  a  mixture  of  German  and  English. 

Leaving  the  stores,  we  visit  the  factories.  The  Nether- 
lands have  no  coal  fields  of  value,  and  hence  there  are 
fewer  factories  here  than  in  France,  Belgium,  or  England. 
Still,  the  cities  can  get  cheap  coal  from  abroad,  for  they 
are  situated  close  to  the  sea,  and,  besides,  the  wind  aids 
the  steam  in  running  their  mills.  The  Dutch  import 
quantities  of  raw  silk  and  wool,  and  a  great  deal  of  our 
cotton ;  and  they  make  excellent  cloth  of  all  kinds.  They 
are  noted  for  their  manufactures  of  china  and  of  many  kinds 
of  machinery,  as  well  as  for  their  gin,  a  spirituous  liquor. 


150  THE  NKrHERLANDS. 

There  is  one  thing  that  requires  great  skill  which  the 
Dutch  do  better  than  any  other  people.  I  wonder  if  you 
can  guess  what  it  is.  You  need  not  look  in  Holland  for 
the  reason,  for  this  business  has  nothing  to  do  with  any- 
thing raised  here.  It  is  connected  with  mines.  Is  it  com- 
posed of  gold,  iron,  silver,  copper,  or  zinc  ?  No,  although 
they  may  furnish  tools  to  aid  in  the  work.  It  has  to  do 
with  the  diamond,  the  costHest  precious  stone  upon  earth. 
Amsterdam  is  the  chief  place  of  the  whole  world  for 
polishing  and  dressing  diamonds  so  that  they  will  shine 
most  beautifully  and  be  of  the  most  value. 

As  the  'diamonds  come  from  the  mines  they  are  rough 
and  misshapen,  and  often  have  flaws  which  lessen  their 
brilliancy.  In  1456  a  Belgian  jeweler  named  Berghem 
discovered  that  rubbing  one  diamond  over  another  wore 
off  a  little  of  each,  and  that  if  he  took  the  powder  made  by 
the  rubbing  he  could  use  it  to  smooth  diamonds.  The 
diamond,  you  know,  is  the  hardest  of  stones.  It  is  so  hard 
that  only  a  diamond  will  cut  it,  and  only  diamond  dust  can 
be  used  in  polishing  diamonds. 

After  Berghem  made  this  discovery,  jewelers  began  to 
study  how  to  make  diamonds  more  beautiful.  The  Dutch 
engaged  in  the  business,  and  with  their  wonderful  patience 
and  skill  became  so  proficient  that  they  now  polish  dia- 
monds better  than  any  one  else.  They  know  just  how  to 
split  them  so  as  to  remove  the  flaws,  and  how  to  grind 
them  into  prismatic  shapes  so  that  they  will  blaze  under 
the  light  Hke  balls  of  fire.  There  are  more  than  sixty  fac- 
tories for  dressing  diamonds  in  Amsterdam,  and  some  of 
them  employ  hundreds  of  hands,  including  many  women 
and  girls. 

We  enter  one  of  the  diamond-cutting  establishments, 
and  are  first  shown  how  diamonds  are  split.     This  is  done 


IN  THE  DUTCH  CITIES.  I5I 

to  remove  the  flaws.  They  can  be  spUt  at  the  flaws ;  and, 
by  using  one  sharp  diamond,  cemented  into  a  handle,  as  a 
knife,  a  rough  diamond  can  be  spHt  up  into  pieces  each 
of  which  is  pure  or  without  flaws.  The  work  is  carefully 
done,  for  a  wrong  stroke  might  easily  destroy  a  stone  worth 
thousands  of  dollars. 

The  next  operation  is  cutting  the  pure  diamond  into 
shape.  This  is  done  by  rubbing  it  with  diamonds  which 
have  been  cemented  into  handles,  and  by  pressing  it  on  a 
revolving  plate  upon  which  diamond  dust  mixed  with  oil 
has  been  spread.  The  plate,  moved  by  steam,  makes 
about  fifteen  hundred  revolutions  a  minute,  and  the  little 
grains  of  diamond  dust  gradually  wear  off  the  roughness 
from  the  diamond  till  it  assumes  the  prismatic  forms  which 
it  has  when  it  is  set  into  jewelry. 

Notice  how  carefully  the  polishers  work  and  how  they 
save  every  grain  of  the  dust.  The  rubbing  and  polishing 
is  all  done  over  metal  boxes  into  which  the  dust  falls. 
Every  bit  of  it  is  saved  to  polish  other  diamonds ;  or,  it  may 
be,  is  spread  upon  a  steel  wire  to  make  diamond  saws, 
which  will  gradually  cut  their  way  through  these  hardest 
of  stones.  , 

Many  of  the  diamond  workers  are  quite  poor.  We 
observe  that  they  are  dressed  in  rough  clothes,  and  that 
some  look  pale  and  wan.  It  is  sad  to  think  that,  although 
they  are  always  working  upon  stones  worth  hundreds  of 
dollars,  they  really  receive  smaller  wages  than  our  workers 
in  iron.  The  grinding  is  confining;  and  it  is  trying  to 
the  eyes,  for  some  of  the  diamonds  are  so  small  that  it 
takes  eight  hundred  of  them  to  weigh  a  carat.  The  larger 
diamonds  are  set  for  jewelry,  but  the  smaller  and  imper- 
fect ones  are  used  in  the  arts.  Many  are  bought  by 
glaziers  to  cut  glass,  some  are  made  into  tools  for  splitting 


152 


THE  NETHERLANDS. 


and  polishing  hard  stones,  and  for  boring,  engraving,  and 
the  Uke.    . 

Leaving  the  diamond  factory,  we  take  the  cars  for  Delft, 
where  a  famous  china  decorated  in  delicate  blue  with 
paintings  of  windmills,  ships,  canals,  and  other  Dutch 
scenes,  is  made.  The  trip  is  a  short  one  and  we  are  soon 
walking  through  one  large  room  after  another,  where 
Dutch  boys  and  men  are  molding  the  clay,  and  with  lathes 
are  turning  it  into  dishes  and  ornamental  figures.  We 
watch  the  men  take  their  work  to  the  ovens,  where  it  is 
kept  under  an  intense  fire  for  thirty  hours  and  then  taken 
out  to  be  painted.  After  this  it  is  dipped  into  a  bath  of 
*white  glaze,  and  then  fired  again,  so  that  the  pictures  are 
actually  burned  into  the  china. 


r 

■im     ^^^^223™                        "^^ii^^^^^^H 

^     1                         -^   ,.    1 

Houses  of  Parliament,  The  Hague. 

From  Delft  we  make  a  quick  railroad  journey  to  The 
Hague,  the  capital  of  Holland.  It  is  a  beautiful  city  of 
over  two   hundred  thousand  people,  situated  three  miles 


IN  THE  DUTCH   CITIES.  1 53 

from  the  shore  of  the  North  Sea  and  thirty -two  miles 
from  Amsterdam. 

We  spend  a  day  strolUng  about  through  its  wide  streets. 
They  are  paved  with  brick  and  lined  with  shade  trees  with 
seats  under  them ;  there  are  many  canals  and  great  vatHke 
ponds  here  and  there  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 

We  visit  the  museum  and  the  picture  galleries,  and  after- 
wards go  to  the  palace  of  the  queen  and  spend  some  time 
in  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  The  Dutch  government  is 
a  limited  monarchy.  It  has  a  Queen  and  a  Congress 
called  the  States-General.  The  latter  is  elected  by  the 
people,  so  that  in  reality  the  Dutch  are  almost  as  free  as 
we  are. 

Leaving  The  Hague,  we  go  by  tramway  to  Holland's 
most  fashionable  watering  place,  situated  about  three 
miles  away,  on  the  shores  of  the  North  Sea.  We  ride 
to  it  through  a  forest  park,  where  the  trees  stand  so 
close  to  the  sides  of  the  railroad  that  their  branches 
meet  overhead.  We  seem  to  be  riding  through  a  long, 
high  arbor  of  green,  our  heads  almost  touching  the  leaves 
as  we  go.  We  each  pay  a  dubbeltje  for  a  seat  on  the 
top  of  the  car.  There  are  ladies  and  gentlemen  riding 
along  on  both  sides  of  the  roadway,  and  there  are  so 
many  people  on  fine  horses  that  we  are  reminded  of 
the  gay  throng  we  saw  on  Rotten  Row  in  Hyde  Park, 
London. 

At  last  we  arrive  at  the  watering  place.  It  is  called 
Scheveningen  (sKa'ven-in-Hen),  the  name  of  a  fishing  vil- 
lage near  by.  As  we  get  down  from  the  car  we  see  a 
group  of  queerly  clad  fishwives  walking  along  in  wooden 
clogs,  bending  half  over  as  they  carry  great  baskets  of  fish 
on  their  backs  to  The  Hague. 

Passing  these,  we  go  to  the  beach.  .  The  tide  is  coming 

CARP.  EUROPE — 10 


154  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

in,  and  the  waves  of  the  blue  North  Sea  are  rolling  over 
one  another,  making  great  lines  of  foam  as  they  dash  up 
on  the  sand.  How  different  the  scenes  are  from  those 
of  our  seashore  at  Atlantic  City,  Cape  May,  or  Long 
Branch.  There  are  large  hotels  some  distance  back  from 
the  water,  but  the  beach  is  covered  with  what  look  like 
giant  bonnets  or  hoods.     They  are  great  wicker  chairs. 


On  the  Way  to  Scheveningen. 

so  made  that  the  people  sitting  within  them  are  pro- 
tected from  the  wind  and  sun,  provided  they  turn  their 
chairs  the  right  way.  There  are  hundreds  of  such  hoods 
on  the  beach,  and  at  first  we  wonder  whether  they  are  not 
some  kind  of  sea  monsters  sunning  themselves  on  the 
sands,  and  if  they  will  not  soon  get  up  and  walk  off. 

See  the  Dutch  children  playing  about !     They  are  en- 
joying themselves  just  as  we  do  at  the  seashore.     Some  are 


IN  THE  DUTCFI   CITIES. 


155 


"-^^ 


fn!??^^ 


' '  The  beach 


with  giant  hoods." 


digging  out  forts  or  building  castles,  waiting  for  the  tide 
to  wash  them  away.  Some  are  burying  their  playmates 
in  the  sand,  and  some  are  riding  over  the  beach  upon 
donkeys.  We  hire  donkeys  ourselves,  and  race  along  with 
them,  paying  only  one  kwartje,  or  about  ten  cents  of  our 
money,  for  a  ride  of  an  hour. 

After  a  gallop  we  hire  suits  and  refresh  ourselves  with 
a  salt  water  bath  in  the  North  Sea.  We  do  not  wade 
out  from  the  shore  as  at  home,  but  hire  little  bathhouses 
on  wheels.  As  we  enter  men  push  and  pull  them  far  out 
into  the  water;   there  we   undress,   put   on  our  bathing 


156  SCANDINAVIA. 

suits,  crawl  down  the  steps,  and  plunge  into  the  surf. 
When  we  have  finished  our  swim  we  climb  back  into  our 
little  cab  houses,  put  on  our  clothes,  and  then  are  pulled 
back  to  the  shore. 


^>9ic 


XVII.     THE   LAND    OF   THE    DANES. 

WE  decide  to  visit  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway 
before  beginning  our  tour  of  the  Great  German 
Empire.  We  are  tired  of  traveling  by  land,  and  therefore 
take  ship  at  Rotterdam  for  Copenhagen.  Our  steamer  car- 
ries us  out  through  the  canal  into  the  North  Sea,  and  up 
through  the  Skagerrack,  about  the  peninsula  of  Jutland, 
and  down  through  the  Cattegat  into  the  long  narrow  sound 
which  separates  the  Danish  Island  of  Zealand  from  Sweden, 
and  which  forms  the  principal  entrance  to  the  Baltic. 

Denmark  has  been  called  the  Keeper  of  the  Baltic.  It 
consists  of  the  northern  part  of  the  peninsula  of  Jutland, 
and  the  islands  to  the  east,  with  some  smaller  islands  out- 
side. It  is  a  little  country  not  more  than  twice  as  big  as 
New  Jersey,  but  it  almost  blocks  the  entrance  to  this  vast 
inland  sea. 

The  sound  where  we  now  are  is  only  seventy  miles  long, 
and  a  little  more  than  a  mile  wide  at  its  narrowest  part, 
but  nevertheless  it  is  the  chief  gate  through  which  the 
ships  that  carry  on  the  commerce  of  Scandinavia,  North 
Germany,  and  Russia  must  pass  on  their  way  to  and  from 
the  ocean.  There  is  another  passage,  but  the  sound  is  by 
far  the  safer  and  better. 

What  a  lot  of  shipping  there  is  all  about  us !  There 
are  Russian  vessels  from  St.  Petersburg ;  German  vessels 


(157) 


1 58  SCANDINAVIA. 

from  Lubeck,  Stettin,  and  Kiel ;  Danish  vessels  from  all 
ports,  and  vessels  from  New  York,  London,  and  Havre. 
Now  we  are  passing  Elsinore,  the  little  city  which  was 
the  scene  of  Shakespeare's  play  of  "  Hamlet,"  and  which 
has  in  times  past  been  very  important  to  this  part  of  the 
world.  Elsinore  was  the  place  where  all  the  ships  passing 
through  the  strait  had  to. stop  and  pay  toll.  The  Danes 
once  owned  not  only  the  Island  of  Zealand  on  the  right, 
but  also  that  part  of  Sweden  on  the  left.  They  con- 
trolled this  gate  into  the  Baltic,  and  made  every  ship 
which  passed  through  pay  well  for  the  privilege.  It  was 
largely  from  this  system  of  tolls  that  Copenhagen  became 
a  great  city.  It  has  an  excellent  harbor,  and  the  ships 
stopped  there  on  their  way  through.  The  word  '*  Copen- 
hagen" means  **  Merchant's  Haven." 

After  a  time  many  men  came  to  Copenhagen  to  buy 
and  sell  goods,  and  the  Danes  sent  their  ships  from 
there  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  so  that  it  has  grown  into  a 
great  commercial  center.  Later  on  Denmark  entered  into 
the  treaties  which  made  the  Sound  free  to  all  nations. 
This  has  so  increased  the  commerce  that  thousands  of 
vessels  now  pass  through  it  every  year;  the  most  of  the 
ships  stop  at  Copenhagen. 

The  result  is  that  Copenhagen  is  one  of  the  principal 
ports  of  northern  Europe.  It  is  as  big  as  Cincinnati,  and 
is  important,  not  only  as  the  capital  of  Denmark,  but  also 
because  it  is  the  chief  manufacturing  and  industrial  city 
of  the  country.  We  find  the  harbor  filled  with  vessels  as 
we  steam  in  by  the  great  forts  and  come  up  to  the  wharves. 
We  push  our  way  through  the  crowds  of  men  who  are 
loading  and  unloading  the  ships,  and  then,  having  sent  our 
baggage  on  to  the  hotel,  start  out  for  a  walk. 

How  clean  the  streets  are !     They  are  narrow,  but  well 


THE   LAND  OF  THE   DANES. 


159 


paved  and  well  kept.  So  many  of  them  have  canals  that 
we  are  reminded  of  Amsterdam.  There  are  cars  and 
carriages  moving  this  way  and  that.  Great  drays  are 
carrying  freight  to  and  from  the  docks,  and  the  business 
streets  are  crowded 
with  foot  passen- 
gers. The  buildings 
are  chiefly  of  stone 
or  light-colored  brick 
with  tiled  roofs. 

Notice  the  stores ! 
Many  are  on  the  sec- 
ond floor,  and  we 
have  to  go  upstairs 
to  do  most  of  our 
shopping.  We  pass 
large  churches  and 
other  big  buildings. 
We  go  to  the  stock 
exchange  and  then 
visit  the  palace  in 
which  the  king  lives.  "  "^^  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^^  ^^^'" 

Later  in  the  day  we  spend  an  hour  in  the  Danish  Parlia- 
ment. This  is  in  the  palace  of  Christiansborg,  in  the  heart 
of  the  city.  We  here  see  that  the  Danes  have  a  Congress 
of  their  own  called  the  Rigsdag  (rix'tac).  They  have  a 
King,  but  they  decide  for  themselves  through  the  Rigsdag 
what  the  laws  are  to  be,  how  much  they  are  to  be  taxed, 
and  just  how  the  money  from  the  taxes  shall  be  spent. 

The  Rigsdag  is  composed  of  two  Houses.  The  upper 
one  is  called  the  Landsthing.  It  is  much  like  our  Senate ; 
but  some  of  its  members  are  appointed  by  the  king,  and 
others  are  selected  from  the  chief  taxpayers  of  the  coun- 


i6o 


SCANDINAVIA. 


try.  The  lower  House  is  called  the  Folkething.  In  this 
all  the  members  are  chosen  by  the  vote  of  the  people ;  no 
man  is  allowed  to  vote  until  he  is  thirty  years  old. 

Leaving  the  palace,  we  take  a  stroll  through  the  beauti- 
ful parks   for  which  Copenhagen   is   noted.     We   spend 


"  —  the  business  streets  are  crowded  with  foot  passengers." 

some  time  in  the  Tivoli  Garden  listening  to  the  music  of 
the  bands  and  watching  the  children  play  about  on  the 
green. 

We  visit  the  Thorwaldsen  Museum,  and  then  make  a 
photograph  of  the  bronze  statue  of  Hans  Christian  Ander- 
sen, of  whom  the  Danes  are  so  proud.  You  may  or  may 
not  have  heard  of  Thorwaldsen,  the  great  sculptor,  but 
every   boy  and  girl   ought  to  know   of   Hans   Christian 


THE   LAND   OF  THE   DANES. 


i6i 


Andersen,  for  he  composed  some  of  the  most  beautiful 
stories  ever  written  for  children,  among  which  are  *'  The 
Tin  Soldier,"  "The  Ugly  Duckling,"  "The  Match  Girl," 
and  how  little  Tuk  learned  his  geography  lesson  in  his 
sleep. 

Hans  Christian  Andersen  was  born  in  the  Danish  town 
of  Odense  (o'deursa).  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  shoe- 
maker, and  his  mother 
wanted  to  make  him  a 
tailor ;  but  he  was  fond  of 
books,  and  told  her  he 
would  rather  go  away  and 
try  to  become  famous  by 
writing.  He  had  only 
about  five  dollars  when  he 
arrived  in  Copenhagen, 
but  he  worked  and  studied, 
and  after  many  misfor- 
tunes succeeded  in  getting 
a  good  education.  When 
his  stories  were  published, 
they  were  liked  so  well 
that  kings  and  princes  in- 
vited him  to  their  palaces 
to  have  him  read  to  them. 

He  traveled  much,  but  his  last  days  were  spent  in  Copen- 
hagen. Here  all  the  children  knew  him.  The  boys  took 
off  their  hats  when  they  met  him  and  the  girls  bowed. 
He  was  a  kind  old  man  and  told  them  many  stories,  often 
seeking  out  children  who  were  sick  to  amuse  them.  He 
died  here  in  1875,  and  the  people  then  erected  this  statue. 
In  the  statue  the  great  story-teller  is  sitting ;  on  one  side 
pf  the  pedestal  has  been  engraved  a  picture  from  "  The 


*/^>'; 


l62 


SCANDINAVIA. 


wii^^ 


Ugly  Duckling,"  and  on  another  side  a  little  child  riding 
on  the  back  of  a  stork. 

Before  leaving  Denmark,  we  take  a  railroad  train  for  a 
rapid  run  over  the  country.  It  is  nearly  all  flat  and  the 
greater  part  of  it  is  pasture.  This  is  so,  not  only  in  Jut- 
land, but  in  the  Danish  islands  as  well.  There  are  rich 
crops  of  wheat,  oats,  and  rye  in  some  places,  and  now  and 
then  a  patch  of  potatoes.  We  see  many  beech  trees,  and 
the  roads  are  frequently  lined  with  them. 

The  pastures,  however,  are  more  important  than  any- 
thing else.     How  well  the  grass  grows.     See  the  fat  cattle 

feeding  upon  it. 
There  are  many  dai- 
ries, and  we  stop  now 
and  then  to  watch 
the  men  and  women 
making  butter  and 
cheese.  Denmark  is 
one  of  the  best  dairy 
countries  of  the 
world,  and  I  doubt 
whether  there  is  any 
other  land  which  pro- 
duces so  much  butter 
in  proportion  to  its 
size.  Denmark  annually  exports  to  England  alone  more 
than  thirty  million  dollars'  worth  of  butter,  and  it  sends 
butter  in  tin  cans  to  all  out-of-the-way  .parts  of  the  world, 
where  the  people  for  any  reason  do  not  make  butter  them- 
selves. It  ships  millions  of  eggs  and  a  great  deal  of  bacon 
and  other  kinds  of  meat. 

Now  we  are  passing  through  one  of  the  small  Danish 
towns.     It  has  but  one  long  street,  bordered  by  quaint  one- 


Danish  Milkman. 


THE  LAND   OF  THE  DANES.  1 63 

Story  houses  with  white  walls  and  roofs  of  red  tiles.  The 
houses  are  neat,  and  the  people  seem  healthy  and  happy. 
Notice  their  rosy  cheeks,  their  light  hair  and  blue  eyes! 
They  are  comfortably  dressed  and  seem  well-to-do.  The 
Danes  are  noted  for  their  thrift ;  they  are  industrious  and 
economical,  and  many  of  them  have  money  in  the  savings 
banks,  which  are  to  be  found  everywhere. 

The  Danes  are  intelligent.  All  children  are  compelled 
to  go  to  school  from  the  age  of  seven  to  fourteen,  and 
there  are  few  men  or  women  who  cannot  read  and  write. 

But  how  dark  it  is  growing !  We  can  see  only  a  short 
distance  outside  the  car  windows.  The  wind  has  blown 
the  fog  in  from  the  ocean,  and  the  country  about  us  is 
enveloped  in  mist.  Denmark  is  so  low  and  so  surrounded 
by  seas  that  it  is  often  covered  with  fog.  It  frequently 
blows  hard,  and  there  are  also  sandstorms  which  are  very 
unpleasant. 

XVIII.     WHERE   THE   SUN    SHINES   AT 
MIDNIGHT. 

THE  Scandinavian  Peninsula  is  often  called  the  "Land 
of  the  Midnight  Sun  "  because  its  northern  part  lies 
within  the  Arctic  Circle,  so  far  north  that  in  the  sum- 
mer the  daylight  lasts  for  months,  when  the  sun  can 
be  seen  the  whole  twenty-four  hours,  and  in  the  winter 
there  is  continuous  darkness  for  months.  This  is  true  of 
only  the  northern  part  of  the  Scandinavian  Peninsula, 
although  the  whole  of  it  is  so  far  north  that  the  summer 
days  are  much  longer  and  the  winter  days  much  shorter 
than  ours.  We  shall  notice  this  as  we  go  onward  from 
place  to  place  through  it.     Even  as  far  south  as  Christiania 


1 64  SCANDINAVIA. 

and  Stockholm  one  can  read  after  ten  o'clock  at  night  in 
summer  out  of  doors,  and  when  we  go  to  bed  we  shall 
hang  our  traveling  rugs  over  the  windows  to  darken  the 
room  so  we  can  sleep. 

We  begin  our  explorations  by  a  trip  to  the  land  of  long 
days  and  long  nights,  for  we  wish  to  see  for  ourselves  how 
the  sun  looks  at  midnight.  The  journey  will  give  us  some 
idea  of  Norway  and  of  the  general  character  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian Peninsula. 

Scandinavia  is  the  largest  peninsula  of  Europe.  It  is  a 
vast  body  of  land,  more  than  four  times  as  big  as  New 
England,  rising  abruptly  out  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and 
sloping  somewhat  toward  the  east  and  south  to  the  Gulf 
of  Bothnia  and  the  Baltic  Sea.  The  land  is  rugged  and 
mountainous.  In  the  north  there  are  snow-clad  peaks  and 
enormous  glaciers.  Farther  south  the  mountains  uphold 
high  wooded  plains  with  many  gorges  or  canyons  running 
through  them.  Some  of  the  mountains  are  steep,  and 
countless  streams  dash  down  their  sides. 

The  peninsula  has  also  numerous  lakes,  many  of  them 
joined  by  canals.  In  Norway  alone  there  are  three  thou- 
sand, while  in  Sweden  the  lakes  cover  almost  one  tenth 
of  the  country.  Norway  is  much  more  rainy  than 
Sweden.  The  winds  from  the  ocean  precipitate  most  of 
their  moisture  as  they  strike  the  mountains,  and  when 
they  descend  the  opposite  slopes  to  the  Baltic  they  are 
comparatively  dry. 

Along  the  Atlantic  Ocean  there  is  a  mountain  wall,  with 
many  great  breaks  or  chasms  in  it.  Some  of  these  chasms 
extend  a  hundred  miles  into  the  land,  forming  ocean  ave- 
nues, as  it  were,  by  which  the  ships  can  steam  far  into  the 
interior.  These  narrow  arms  of  the  sea  are  called  fiords 
(fyords).     They  are  of  great  value  in  cpninaercQ  and  trade^ 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  AT  mDNIGHT.  165 

and  the  people  have  built  nearly  all  their  towns  and  vil- 
lages upon  them.  They  give  Norway  and  Sweden  a  coast 
line  so  long  that,  if  it  could  be  stretched  out,  it  would  reach 
more  than  halfway  round  the  world. 

But  we  shall  see  this  better  as  we  go  in  dur  steamer 
along  the  shore  to  the  North  Cape.  We  make  the  trip 
leisurely,  stopping  now  and  then  for  a  journey  into  the 
interior  by  the  fiords.  Now  we  have  entered  one  of  these 
great  breaks  in  the  mountain  wall.  We  are  sailing  up  a 
mighty  ravine,  right  into  the  heart  of  the  country.  The 
walls  of  trees,  moss,  and  bushes  rise  above  us  so  high  that 
we  seem  to  be  roofed  with  the  blue  sky.  Lean  over 
the  side  of  the  boat  and  look  down.  How  clear  the 
water  is !  It  is  a  hundred  feet  deep,  yet  we  can  see  bot- 
tom, and  as  the  vessel  slows  up  we  observe  the  fishes 
swimming  about  far  below  us. 

Now  we  have  gone  farther  inland.  We  have  lost  sight 
of  the  ocean  through  a  turn  in  the  fiord,  and  we  seem  to 
be  traveling  through  a  mountain-walled  canyon.  Hear  that 
noise  which  comes  from  the  front.  Ask  the  pilot  to  guide 
the  boat  more  to  the  left.  The  noise  is  made  by  that  great 
volume  of  water  dashing  down  into  the  fiord  from  the 
cliff  on  the  right.  That  is  a  mountain  stream  which  is 
taking  its  last  plunge  on  its  way  to  the  sea.  Now  we  are 
almost  under  it.  Does  it  not  look  like  a  torrent  falling 
out  of  the  sky.'*  Now  we  have  gone  past.  The  sun  is 
shining  through  the  spray,  turning  it  into  myriads  of  dia- 
monds and  painting  rainbows  high  above  the  surface  of 
the  fiord. 

As  we  go  still  farther  inland  the  height  of  the  walls 
decreases.  We  find  little  towns  and  villages  along  the 
banks,  and  now  and  then  a  small  city.  The  houses  are 
like  great  wooden  boxes  on  foundations   of   stone.     The 


1 66  SCANDINAVIA. 

walls  are  painted  red,  white,  gray,  or  yellow,  and  the  build- 
ings look  very  pretty  against  the  background  of  green. 

Now  we  are  back  again  in  the  ocean  and  6n  our  way  to 
the  north.  How  smooth  the  sea  is  !  This  is  because 
of  the  islands  which  everywhere  line  the  coast  of  Norway ; 
they  form  a  breakwater  against  the  storms,  and  give 
the  sailors  a  quiet  ocean  channel  from  one  ead  of  their 


"  We  find  little  towns  and  villages  along  the  banks." 

country  to  the  other.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  with  these 
fiords,  this  great  seacoast,  and  this  easy  sailing  coast  chan- 
nel, the  Norwegians  should  have  many  seamen  ?  They,  as 
well  as  their  brothers  of  Sweden,  have  an  enormous  number 
of  ships.  They  do  much  trading  and  fishing,  and  you  may 
find  their  merchant  vessels  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

We  stay  for  a  day  at  Trondhjem  (trond'yem),  oh  a  great 
i^ord,  and  are  surprised  to  find,  away  up  here  at  the  north, 


WHERE  THE   SUN   SHINES  AT   MIDNIGHT. 


167 


Norwegian  Fishermen. 
a  city  of  thirty  thousand  people,  with  wide  streets,  good 
pavements,  and  fine  buildings.  It  has  also  shipbuilding 
yards,  lumber  mills,  and  fish-packing  houses.  We  visit 
the  cathedral,  one  of  the  oldest  in  Europe,  and  the  one 
in  which  the  Nor- 
wegian kings  are 
crowned.  It  is  built 
of  blue-colored 
slate,  and  some  parts 
of  it  are  beautifully 
carved. 

Trondhjem  is  the 
third  city  of  Nor- 
way, and  the  north- 
ernmost railroad 
town  of  the  world. 


Trondhjem  Cathedral. 


It  is  connected  with  Christiania  by  a  railroad  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  long.     It  has  also  much  shipping,  and 


1 68  SCANDINAVIA. 

its  harbor  is  open  all  the  year  round,  although  it  is  several 
hundred  miles  farther  north  than  northern  Labrador.  It  is 
nearer  the  North  Pole  than  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  River 
in  Alaska,  and  it  is  on  about  the  same  parallel  of  latitude 
as  southern  Iceland. 

All  of  these  countries  are  frozen  up  during  the  winter, 
and  most  of  them  have  from  six  to  eight  months  of  ice. 
Why.  is  it  that  Trondhjem  does  not  freeze  too  ?  It  is  on 
account  of  the  prevailing  westerly  winds,  which  are  kept 
warm  by  the  drift  from  the  Gulf  Stream.  The  warm  Gulf 
Stream,  having  flowed  along  our  Atlantic  Coast,  sup- 
plies to  the  northern  Atlantic  a  vast  amount  of  warm 
water,  which  is  drifted  across  the  ocean  by  the  westerly 
winds  and  keeps  them  warm.  These  winds  give  the 
British  Isles  a  temperate  climate,  and  then  flood  the  coast 
of  Norway  with  a  bath  of  warm  air.  The  drift  water  is 
so  warm  that  all  the  harbors  along  the  west  coast  of  Nor- 
way are  free  from  ice  during  the  winter,  while  the  harbors 
of  the  Baltic  Sea  and  the '  Gulf  of  Bothnia  are  frozen. 
The  greater  part  of  Norway  would  be  uninhabitable  were 
it  not  for  the  water-warmed  westerly  wind.  The  people 
owe  their  food,  their  commerce,  their  very  lives,  to  it. 
Were  it  not  for  its  heat,  the  fiords  would  be  blocked  with 
ice,  and  the  coast  be  as  cold  and  barren  and  desolate  as 
Labrador. 

A  part  of  Sweden  is  colder  in  winter  than  Norway, 
although  both  countries  are  covered  with  snow  for 
months  at  a  time.  The  people  go  about  upon  sleds 
and  skates,  and  they  travel  from  one  place  to  another 
upon  long  snowshoes  or  skis.  They  have  tobogganing 
parties,  and  enjoy  themselves  coasting  down  the  steep  hills. 

Leaving  Trondhjem,  we  sail  northward  inside  the 
islands,  by  snow-clad  mountains,  upon  the  sides  of  which 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  AT  MIDNIGHT  1 69 

great  glaciers  hang.  We  cross  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  then 
stay  for  a  day  at  Tromso  to  have  a  look  at  a  village  of 
Laplanders  not  far  away.  Some  of  the  Lapps  live  in 
tents  made  of  skins  stretched  upon  poles,  with  a  hole  in 
the  top  for  the  smoke  to  go  out.  Others  have  huts  of 
stone  and  earth,  but  everything  is  of  the  rudest  description. 


" — everything  is  of  the  rudest  description." 

The  people  gather  round  us  as  we  walk  through  their 
little  town,  offering  to  pose  for  our  cameras.  How  dirty 
they  are  and  how  small !  They  look  like  dwarfs.  The  men 
are  about  five  feet  tall  and  the  women  about  six  inches 
shorter.  They  are  dressed  in  reindeer  skins  with  the  fur 
on  the  inside.  They  belong  to  the  yellow  race,  and  their 
complexions  are  almost  as  yellow  as  their  leather  cloth- 
ing, their  skins  having  been  darkened  by  the  smoke  which 
fills  their  tents  the  greater  part  of  the  time. 


170  SCANDINAVIA. 

The  little  Lapps  look  and  dress  just  like  their  parents. 
All  have  high  cheek  bones,  flat  noses,  and  large  mouths. 
Their  eyes  are  small  and  black,  and  often  twinkling  with 
laughter.  They  seem  good  natured,  and  for  a  few  cop- 
pers will  allow  themselves  to  be  photographed  as  often 
as  we  wish. 

We  see  but  few  reindeer  about  Tromso.  They  are  to 
be  fi^^nd  farther  back  in  the  country,  where  nearly  every 
Lapp  has  his  own  herd,  and  where  the  people  live  largely 
upon  reindeer  meat  and  reindeer  milk.  They  milk  the 
reindeer  just  as  we  milk  our  cows,  but  they  can  keep  milk 
better  than  wq  can,  with  all  our  ice  chests  and  spring 
houses,  for  it  is  so  cold  in  the  winter  where  the  Lapps 
live  that  they  freeze  the  milk  into  hard  blocks,  after  which 
it  will  keep  for  months  and  they  can  use  it  as  they  need  it. 

Many  of  the  Laplanders  are  nomads ;  that  is,  they  have 
no  settled  habitation.  It  takes  quite  a  large  space  to 
support  a  reindeer,  for  the  vegetation  is  scanty  in  these 
northern  latitudes,  and  the  people  drive  the  deer  from 
place  to  place  to  find  pasture.  In  traveling  many  of 
them  use  reindeer  sledges  upon  which  their  tents  and  other 
things  are  carried.  The  reindeer  can  travel  very  fast,  and 
they  take  the  place  of  horses  in  all  the  lands  along  the 
Arctic  coast  of  Europe. 

From  Tromso  we  steam  on  to  Hammerfest,  to  get  a  look 
at  the  northernmost  town  of  the  world  before  going  to  the 
Cape.  It  is  early  morning  when  we  cast  anchor  in  the 
harbor,  but  we  are  now  so  far  north  that  it  is  light  through- 
out the  whole  night.  We  are  far  beyond  the  latitude  of 
Iceland,  beyond  that  of  Cape  Brewster  in  "  Greenland, 
farther  north  than  the  gold  diggings  of  the  Klondike  in 
Alaska,  and  in  seas  which,  were  it  not  for  the  Gulf  Stream, 
would  be  filled  with  ice  almost  all  the  year  round. 


WHERE  THE  SUN   SHINES   AT  MIDNIGHT. 


171 


Hammerfest  is  a  thriving  city.  It  contains  about  three 
thousand  people,  who  dwell  in  hundreds  of  wooden  one 
and  two  story  houses  on  the  edge  of  the  sea.  It  has 
a  telegraph  station  and  weekly  newspapers.  We  eat  our 
dinner  at  a  good  hotel,  and  find  that  the  people  live  well 


Landing,  Hammerfest. 

here  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  world.  They  have 
very  long  winters,  but  in  the  summer  for  months  the  sun 
shines  all  day  and  almost  all  night  as  well.  The  plants 
then  grow  very  rapidly,  and  vegetables  mature  in  much 
less  time  than  with  us. 

Now  we  are  again  on  our  way  to  the  north.     We  have 

CARP.  EUROPE — II 


172 


SCANDINAVIA. 


left  Hammerfest,  and  in  seven  hours  we  shall  be  at  the 
North  Cape,  the  northern  extremity  of  Magero  Island  and 
at  the  northernmost  point  of  Europe.  We  have  been 
within  the  Arctic  Circle  for  days,  and  are  now  sailing 
through  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The  water  is  clear  and  of  a 
beautiful  blue.  It  is  not  very  cold,  for  we  are  still  float- 
ing upon  the  warm  drift  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  although 
we  now  and  then  see  an  iceberg,  and  we  are  always  in 
sight  of  the  glaciers  on  the  mountains  of  Norway.  How 
fresh  the  air  is,  and  how  pure !  The  winds  blow  continu- 
ally, so  that  we  almost  have  to  fight  our  way  from  the 
stern  of  the  boat  to  the  prow. 

Now  we  are  steaming  amongst  islands,  with  birds   in 
great   flocks    soaring  about   in   the    air   over   our    heads. 

There  are  scores  of 
sea  gulls  following  the 
steamer,  and  hundreds 
of  black  and  white 
eider  ducks  flying  over 
the  islands.  The  ducks 
are  of  value  for  their 
feathers,  which  are  so 
soft  and  light  that  they 
make  excellent  wad- 
ding for  quilts.  They  are  also  used  for  trimming  cloaks 
and  for  collars,  muffs,  wraps,  and  other  such  things.  The 
ducks  build  nests  of  twigs  and  rushes,  and  line  them  with 
soft  feathers  which  they  pluck  from  their  own  breasts. 
Our  captain  tells  us  the  ducks  are  protected  by  law,  as 
many  people  make  their  living  by  gathering  the  feathers. 
The  hunters,  when  they  find  a  nest,  are  careful  not  to  de- 
stroy it.  They  merely  take  out  the  feather  lining,  after 
which  the  ducks  will  line  them  once  again.     When  they 


Eider  Ducks. 


WHERE  THE  SUN   SHINES   AT   MIDNIGHT.  1 73 

have  been  twice  robbed  they  will  slip  off  and  build  a  nest 
somewhere  else. 

As  we  go  on  among  the  islands,  we  pass  many  rocks  half 
submerged  by  the  sea.  See  that  one  away  over  there  at 
the  right !  It  apparently  has  a  geyser  upon  it,  for  it  is 
spouting  water  high  into  the  air.  See,  it  is  moving.  Take 
your  field  glass  and  look  again.  That  is  not  an  island  at 
all,  it.  is  a  whale.  There  are  many  whales  in  these  waters, 
and  many  ships  are  engaged  in  catching  them  for  their 
oil  and  whalebone.  There,  the  great  whale  has  dived,  and 
we  see  him  no  more ! 

We  sail  on  and  on,  until  at  last,  rounding  a  great,  bleak 
point  of  rocks,  we  enter  the  harbor  of  the  North  Cape, 
and  drop  our  anchor  in  a  little  bay  surrounded  by  moun- 
tains, on  some  of  which  snow  can  be  seen.  We  take  out 
our  lines,  and  amuse  ourselves  fishing  while  we  wait  for 
the  hour  when  we  are  to  see  the  sun  shining  at  midnight. 

How  slowly  the  time  goes,  and  how  strange  is  this  turn- 
ing of  night  into  day !  The  sun  was  already  high  in  the 
heavens  at  about  three  o'clock  this  morning,  when  we  came 
into  Hammerfest ;  and  when  we  think  of  all  we  have  seen 
since  then  the  day  seems  a  week  long,  and  it  is  hours  yet 
till  midnight.  We  look  again  and  again  at  our  watches,  ob- 
serving that  the  sun  still  stands  high  above  the  horizon.  It 
is  well'up  at  10.30  p.m.,  when  we  leave  the  ship  f or  the-shore. 
We  have  decided  to  climb  the  bluff  which  overhangs  the 
harbor,  for  our  midnight  view  of  the  King  of  the  Heav- 
ens. The  captain  warns  us  that  we  must  hurry  back,  for 
he  wishes  to  leave  as  soon  as  we  return.  He  gives  us  a 
boat,  and  we  row  to  the  land  and  walk  along  a  rugged 
path  through  the  rocks  to  the  foot  of  the  bluff.  The  way 
from  here  on  is  so  steep  that  we  are  glad  to  use  the  thick 
rope  which  has  been  passed  through  iron  rings  fastened  by 


174 


SCANDINAVIA. 


Staples  into  the  rock  in  order  that  travelers  may  help  them- 
selves up  by  it.  The  bluff  is  nine  hundred  feet  high,  but 
step  by  step  we  climb  up  its  bleak  sides  to  the  top,  and 
take  our  stand  beside  the  brown  stone  monument  which 
was  erected  here  when  Oscar  II,  King  of  Sweden,  visited 
the  Cape  about  a  generation  ago. 


North  Cape. 

We  stop  a  moment  trying  to  realize  where  we  are  as 
we  look  at  the  glorious  scenes  all  about  us.  We  are  about 
as  far  north  as  man  ever  gets,  if  we  except  the  few  Arctic 
Explorers  who  have  risked  their  Hves  in  trying  to  find  the 
North  Pole.  We  are  at  the  northern  edge  of  Europe,  and 
are  looking  out  upon  the  great  polar  world.  To  the  north 
of  us  are  the  regions  of  icebergs,  Eskimos,  and  polar  bears. 
To  our  right  and  to  our  left,  seas  unsailed  except  by  whal- 
ing and  sealing  ships  extend  on  and  on,  a  vast  watery 


WHERE  THE   SUN   RISES  AT   MIDNIGHT.  1 75 

waste  dotted  here  and  there  by  icy  islands  where  Jack 
Frost  reigns  supreme. 

And  still  it  is  wonderfully  beautiful.  We  are  gazing 
over  the  great  Arctic  Ocean,  which  is  rolling  about  under 
a  glorious  sun.  It  looks  not  unlike  the  Atlantic  as  we 
have  seen  it  from  the  rocks  of  our  New  England  coast, 
when  the  sun  was  still  several  hours  from  its  setting.  The 
scene  is  so  fine  that  we  almost  forget  the  time,  until  we 
notice  some  rockets  shooting  up  from  the  ship  far  below 
us.  That  is  the  signal  from  the  captain  for  us  to  hurry, 
as  he  wishes  to  sail.  We  look  at  our  watches,  and  lo  !  it  is 
midnight.  The  sun  is  as  far  down  as  it  will  go  during  this 
twenty-four  hours,  and  as  near  the  horizon  as  it  will  get  for 
months  to  come. 

We.  stand  on  the  bluff  and  wave  our  American  flags  in 
honor  of  the  occasion,  while  we  sing  "  Hail  Columbia " 
away  up  here  on  the  mountain.  We  go  to  the  edge  of  the 
bluff  and  throw  stones  down  into  the  ocean ;  and  as  we 
look  out  over  it  we  feel  that  if  we  had  not  a  large  part  of 
Europe  yet  to  explore,  we  might  easily  take  a  boat  and 
steam  on  to  the  Pole.  We  wait  for  a  few  moments  in  order 
to  say  that  we  have  seen  the  sun  rise,  although  in  this  lati- 
tude there  is  little  difference  between  its  rising  and  setting, 
and  then  we  say  farewell,  and  make  our  way  down  the 
bluff  to  our  boat.  We  eat  our  breakfast  on  board  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  cook  has  fried  the  fresh 
cod  that  we  caught  when  we  first  came  into  the  harbor, 
and  to  us,  hungry  from  our  climb  up  the  bluff,  they  seem 
sweeter  than  any  fish  ever  eaten  before. 

An  hour  later  we  are  again  in  our  cabins,  which  we  have 
darkened  by  hanging  our  coats  over  the  port  holes,  ready 
to  take  our  first  sleep  after  our  long  working  day  of  more 
than  twenty-four  hours. 


176 


SCANDINAVIA. 


XIX.     TRAVELS  IN   NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN. 


Carriole  and  Pony. 


WE  have  left  our  steamer  at  Trondhjem,  and  are 
going  through  Norway  to  Christiania  by  rail.  The 
distance  is  less  than  four  hundred  miles,  but  we  spend 
several  days  on  the  journey,  for  we  wish  to  study  the 
country.  We  leave  the  train  frequently,  and  ride  in  car- 
rioles  from    one    town  to    another.      The    carrioles    are 

little  carts  not  unlike 
our  American  sulkies, 
save  that  each  carriole 
has  a  seat  behind  for 
-^  the  boy  or  girl  whom 
the  owner  sends  along 
to  bring  it  back  home. 
Our  carrioles  are  drawn 
by  Norwegian  ponies. 
They  are  stocky  little  cream-colored  beasts  with  long  tails 
and  short  manes.  They  are  so  patient  and  gentle  that  we 
fall  in  love  with  them,  and  wish  we  could  send  them  home 
to  America.  They  go  very  fast,  and  will  travel  all  day 
without  tiring.  Sometimes  one  goes  too  fast  for  our  com- 
fort. We  pull  on  the  reins  and  cry  whoa !  but  the  pony 
goes  faster  than  ever.  At  last,  in  despair,  we  look  back  at 
the  little  boy  riding  behind.  He  laughs,  and  then  makes 
a  noise  like  the  loud  purring  of  a  cat,  saying  pur-r-r.  The 
pony  stops  instantly,  and  we  thus  learn  that  pur-r-r  means 
whoa  in  Norway. 

Much  of  our  travel  is  through  the  forests  for  which  Nor- 
way and  Sweden  are  noted.  Scandinavia  has  long  been 
one  of  the  chief  lumber  regions  of  Europe.  In  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  peninsula  there  are  vast  tracts  of  pine  and 


TRAVELS   IN  NORWAY  AND   SWEDEN. 


177 


fir,  and  in  the  south  many  beeches,  elms,  and  other  hard 
wood  trees.  About  the  best  shipping  timber  used  in 
England  and  on  the  continent  comes  from  Scandinavia, 
Sweden  sometimes  exporting  as  much  as  twenty-five  mil- 
lion dollars  worth  of  lumber  a  year.  A  great  deal  is 
shipped  as  logs,  some  as  window  sashes  and  doors,  much 
as  boards,  and  not  a  little  split  up  into  matches.  Swedish 
matches  light  the  fires  of  a  great  part  of  the  world;  so 
many  are  sold  every  year  that,  if  they  were  all  loaded 
into  two-horse  wagons,  at  a  ton  to  the  wagon,  it  would 
take  a  line  of  teams  more  than  a  hundred  miles  long  to 
carry  them  all. 

Let  us  stop  our  carrioles  and  think  for  a  moment  of  the 
possible  future  of  this  forest  we  are  now  passing  through. 
There  is  a  great 
pine  which  has  been 
marked  for  cutting ! 
Within  a  short  time 
it  will  start  on  its 
travels  to  Holland 
to  serve  as  a  pile 
to  support  one  of 
the  great  buildings 
of  Amsterdam  or 
Rotterdam.  That 
tall  tree  beside  it 
may  form  the  mast 
of  a  German  steam- 
ship which  will  carry 
goods  to  South  Africa  or  China,  and  those  others  near  by 
may  be  cut  up  into  posts  of  from  three  to  nine  feet  in 
length,  to  prop  up  the  roofs  of  the  tunnels  in  the  coal 
mines  of  England.     Farther  on  ^re  som^  which  may  be 


Peasant  Girls. 


178  SCANDINAVIA. 

ground  into  pulp  to  make  printing  paper,  and  they  may 
again  come  before  us  in  the  newspapers  which  a  little  later 
we  shall  read  at  our  breakfasts  in  Vienna  or  Rome. 

So  musing,  we  go  on  through  the  woods  and  come  out 
into  cleared  lands,  where  men,  women,  and  children  are 


Haymakers. 

cutting  hay  and  curing  it  for  winter.  How  different  it 
is  from  the  harvest  scenes  of  our  great  western  farms ! 
There  are  no  mowing  machines,  nor  iron  rakes  drawn  by 
horses.  There  are  no  hay  wagons  such  as  we  use.  The 
men  are  cutting  the  grass  with  scythes,  and  the  women  are 
raking  it  together  and  carrying  it  in  their  arms  to  those 


TRAVELS  IN  NORWAY  AND   SWEDEN.  1 79 

racks  of  wood  or  wire  at  the  sides  of  the  field,  where  they 
tie  it  up  in  bundles  and  hang  it  out  to  dry  in  the  sun  and 
the  wind  just  as  we  dry  our  washing.  It  is  so  rainy  that 
the  people  dare  not  let  the  hay  he  on  the  ground.  After 
it  is  cured  it  is  carried  off  to  the  barns  by  ponies,  in  little 
wagons  not  much  bigger  than  baby  cribs,  which  move 
along  on  small  wooden  wheels.  On  some  farms  the  hay 
is  packed  in  baskets  and  carried  home  by  the  women  on 
their  backs,  and  on  others,  where  the  fields  are  high  up, 
they  tie  the  hay  into  bundles  and  slide  it  down  on  wire 
ropes  to  the  barns.  Sometimes  buckets  of  milk  are  sent 
down  from  the  hills  in  this  way.  The  farms  are  so  small 
and  so  rough  that  the  people  could  not  possibly  use  our 
heavy  farming  machinery. 

We  stop  at  one  of  the  farmhouses  for  lunch,  and  are 
told  we  can  have  bread  and  milk,  fresh  eggs,  and  salmon. 
The  farmer's  daughter  first  brings  in  the  bread.  It  is  of 
the  kind  known  as  **flat-brod,"  which  is  used  all  over  Nor- 
way. It  is  made  of  rye  meal  and  water  in  thin  cakes  twice 
as  big  around  as  a  dinner  plate,  and  so  hard  and  crisp  that 
we  break  it  like  crackers.  The  fish  and  eggs  follow  ;  they 
are  well  cooked  and  delicious.  We  have  excellent  butter 
and  very  good  cheese,  and  as  we  go  on  with  our  journey 
we  find  that  the  Norwegians  live  very  well.  They  have 
but  little  meat  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  we  can 
always  get  eggs  and  fish,  and  in  the  north  we  often  have 
venison  and  reindeer  steaks  and  roasts,  with  reindeer  hash 
next  day. 

The  country  people  live  plainly  in  all  parts  of  Scandi- 
navia. The  houses  are  small,  seldom  containing  more 
than  two  or  three  rooms,  although  one  farmer  may  some- 
times have  several  houses  for  himself  and  servants.  Every 
one  works.      We   see  women  knitting  away  in  the  hay 


l8o  SCANDINAVIA. 

fields  while  resting,  and  in  the  evening  find  them  spinning 
inside  the  houses.  The  women  and  girls  make  all  the 
clothes  of  the  family.  They  weave  the  cloth,  and  cut  out 
the  garments  and  sew  them.  In  some  parts  of  Scandi- 
navia they  make  beautiful  lace.  The  people  of  one  town 
will  often  follow  only  one  pattern,  stitching  the  same 
pattern  over  and  over  again  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other. The  men  manufacture  the  most  of  their  farming 
tools,  and  not  a  few  make  the  harness  for  their  ponies. 
The  people  are  well  educated.  Children  are  compelled 
to  attend  school,  and  nearly  every  one  can  read  and  write. 

Our  train  is  now  coming  into  Christiania,  the  capital  of 
Norway  and  the  second  largest  city  in  the  Scandinavian 
Peninsula.  We  take  a  carriage  at  the  station  and  drive  to 
our  hotel,  where  we  leave  our  baggage  and  then  drive  on 
through  the  city. 

Christiania  is  about  as  big  as  St.  Paul  and  quite  as  beauti- 
ful. Its  wide  streets  are  well  paved,  and  lined  with  large 
buildings  of  stone.  There  are  many  fine  residences  and 
public  squares  and  parks.  The  people  must  be  fond  of 
flowers,  for  nearly  every  window  has  a  row  of  plants  in  it. 

Christiania  is  situated  on  a  wide,  deep  fiord,  and  large 
ocean  steamers  can  sail  up  into  the  town.  We  visit  the 
wharves  and  find  there  a  steamer  about  starting  out  for 
Gothenburg  (got^en-borg),  Sweden,  and  as  we  wish  to 
cross  Sweden  by  the  celebrated  Gotha  Canal  which  con- 
nects Gothenburg  with  the  Baltic,  we  take  passage. 

The  ride  is  a  short  one,  and  we  are  soon  again  upon 
land.  Gothenburg  is  the  chief  city  on  the  west  coast  of 
Sweden.  It  was  once  famous  as  a  fishing  place,  and  it  is 
now  important  as  the  western  terminus  of  the  Gotha  Canal. 
We  walk  through  its  long,  wide  streets,  bordered  by 
canals  walled  with  stone  and  crossed  with  bridges  of  iron. 


TRAVELS  IN  NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN. 


iSi 


The  city  reminds  us  of  the  Dutch  towns,  and  we  enjoy  its 
quaint  old  houses  of  brick,  its  beautiful  parks,  and  its 
canal  streets  filled  with  shipping.  We  go  out  to  the  ship- 
building yards,  and  also  visit  the  factories  where  they  are 
weaving  linen  and  cotton  cloth,  and  making  all  kinds  of 
machinery,  paper,  matches,  tobacco,  and  sugar. 

It  is  early  morning  when  we  start  on  our  journey  up  the 
Gotha  River  and  on  into  the  canal.     We  steam  around  the 


Falls  of  Trollhatten. 

high  falls  of  Trollhatten  into  Lake  Wenern  (va'nern). 
The  canal  is  about  three  hundred  miles  long,  but  it  is  so 
largely  made  up  of  lakes  and  rivers  that  it  has  only  fifty 
miles  of  excavated  water  ways.  Our  boat  is  carried  up  past 
the  falls  by  means  of  eleven  great  locks,  and,  after  cross- 
ing the  lake,  we  again  rise  by  other  locks  until  we  are 
three  hundred  feet  above  sea  level,  on  the  highest  point 
between  Lake  Wenern  and  Lake  Wettern  (vet'tern).   From 


1 82  SCANDINAVIA. 

this  point  we  begin  to  descend ;  we  fall  from  one  level 
to  another  by  means  of  locks,  till,  at  last,  we  sail  out  into 
the  Baltic  Sea,  and  a  few  hours  later  are  steaming  into 
the  capital  of  Sweden. 

Stockholm  is  a  beautiful  city.  It  lies  on  both  sides  of  a 
channel  which  connects  the  Baltic  Sea  with  Lake  Malar 
(ma'lar).  We  coast  in  and  out  among  islands  as  we 
come  in,  and  if  we  should  go  through  into  the  lake 
beyond,  we  should  find  other  islands,  almost  as  many  as 
the  Thousand  Islands  in  the  St.  Lawrence  above  Montreal. 
Stockholm  is  cut  up  by  canals.  It  has  bridges  connect- 
ing it  with  the  islands  about  it,  and  its  water  ways  are 
so  many  and  so  beautiful  that  it  has  been  called  the 
Venice  of  the  North.  Everywhere  we  look  we  see  boats 
moving  about.  There  are  great  ships  at  the  quay;  the 
vast  buildings  rise  right  up  from  the  sea,  so  that  the  city 
looks  as  though  it  were  built  on  the  waves. 

We  leave  the  ship  and  walk  through  the  city.  The 
streets  are  wide  and  well  paved,  and  we  cross  at  least  two 
bridges  every  half  mile.  The  buildings  are  large,  and 
there  are  many  three-story  structures  with  dormer  win- 
dows, stretching  their  heads  out  of  the  steep  slanting  roofs 
as  though  asking  what  the  weather  might  be.  There  are 
many  statues ;  for  the  Swedes  are  noted  as  sculptors,  and 
are  fond  of  the  fine  arts. 

We  see  children  everywhere  going  to  school.  The 
Swedes  are  as  well  educated  as  any  people  of  Europe, 
and  there  are  very  few  of  them  who  cannot  read  and  write. 
They  are  energetic,  and  so  thrifty  that  when  they  emigrate 
to  the  United  States,  as  many  of  them  do  every  year, 
they  soon  become  good  American  citizens.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  find  stronger,  more  thrifty,  and  more  intelligent 
people  than  those  of  Norway  and  Sweden.    Centuries  ago, 


TRAVELS  IN  NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN. 


183 


when  they  were  known  as  the  Norsemen,  they  were  noted 
for  their  bravery  on  sea  and  on  land  ;  their  war  vessels 
sailed  many  seas,  and  they  made  themselves  feared  in 
their  wars  with  the  other  peoples  of  northern  Europe. 
Now  they  have  proved  themselves  equally  great  in  the 
arts  of  peace. 

Continuing  with  pur  walk  we  pass  parks  and  publig  gar- 
dens at  frequent  intervals.     There  are  cafes  in  the  gardens, 


Palace  of  the  King. 

and  the  family  parties,  sitting  about  the  tables,  under  the 
trees,  in  front  of  them,  remind  us  of  the  boulevards  of 
Paris. 

Notice  the  people  we  pass  on  the  streets.  What  fair 
faces  they  have,  and  what  very  blue  eyes !  Scandinavia 
is  the  land  of  the  blue  eye  and  the  tow  head.  There  is  a 
girl  from  the  country.  We  have  seen  some  dressed  much 
like  her  in  interior  Norway.  She  wears  a  cap  which 
comes  down  over  her  ears,  rising  in  a  peak  at  the  front. 


i84 


SCANDINAVIA. 


Her  short  black  skirt  is  of  homespun,  and  her  white  waist 
has  very  full  sleeves.  She  has  on  a  long  apron  of  red  and 
blue  stripes,  and  about  her  neck  is  a  bright-colored  hand- 
kerchief. There  is  a  little  girl  clad  the  same  way.  We 
shall  see  many  dresses  like  those  out  in  the  country, 
although  most  of  the  city  people  dress  as  we  do. 

But  what  is  that  huge  building  over  there  on  the  edge  of 
the  harbor  ?  I  mean  the  one  with  the  wide  terrace  looking 
out  over  the  water.  That  is  the  palace  of  the  king  of 
Norway  and  Sweden.  It  contains  eight  hundred  rooms, 
and  is  one  of  the  fine  buildings  of  Europe. 

The  two  countries  of  the  Scandinavian  Peninsula  are 
ruled  by  one  King,  although  each  elects  its  own  Parlia- 
ment which  makes  all  the  laws  for  its  people.  The  king, 
as  far  as  Norway  is  concerned,  deals  only  with  the  impor- 
tant affairs  of  the  two  countries  in  their  relations  to  other 
nations.  He  has  command  of  the  land  and  sea  forces  in 
times  of  war,  but  he  cannot  appoint  any  one  but  Norwe- 
gians to  public  offices  in  Norway.  He  spends  a  part  of 
the  year  at  Christiania,  and  the  remainder  in  Stockholm. 
It  is  provided  by  law  that  he  must  be  a  Lutheran,  for  this 

is  the  chief  church 
of  both  Norway  and 
Sweden. 

Soon  we  leave 
Stockholm  for  a  trip 
.  out  into  the  country. 
We  visit  some  of  the 
great  factories  for 
which  Sweden  is  noted. 
We  go  down  into  the 
iron  and  copper  mines,  and  travel  through  many  farming 
districts  not  unlike  those  of   Norway.      The  farms  are 


Swedish  Grain  Cart, 


TRAVELS   IN  NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN. 


185 


exceedingly  small.  Some  are  not  much  bigger  than  a  vil- 
lage lot,  and  some  are  so  long  and  so  narrow  that  you 
could  hardly  turn  a  dray  about  in  them.  Sweden  has  many 
thousands  of  such  Uttle  farms.  According  to  law,  when  a 
man  dies  his  land  must  be  divided  evenly  among  his  chil- 
dren, so  his  farm  is  cut  up  into  strips  and  one  strip  is 
given  to  each  child..  Many  of  the  strips  are  so  small  that 
there  are  no  houses 
upon  them.  One 
man  often  owns  a 
score  of  these  little 
farms. 

You  would  not 
think  that  people 
could  make  much  out 
of  land  so-  divided, 
but  the  Swedes  are 
thrifty  and  they  do 
very  well.  Their  cli- 
mate is  so  damp  that 
grass  grows  luxuri- 
antly, and  they  are 
such  good  dairymen  that  their  butter  and  cheese  sell  well 
in  all  parts  of  northern  Europe. 

We  see  quite  as  many  women  and  children  at  work  in 
the  fields  as  in  Norway.  The  women  look  odd  with  their 
sharp-pointed  caps,  short  skirts,  and  bright  aprons.  There 
comes  one  now  with  a  baby  slung  to  her  back ;  the  little 
one  is  wrapped  up  in  a  cloth,  the  ends  of  which  are  tied 
over  the  mother's  breast.  How  can  the  woman  possibly 
work  with  such  a  big  load  on  her  back  ?  Her  baby  will 
surely  fall  off  if  she  stoops  down  and  tries  to  tie  the  grass 
into  sheaves  as  the  other  women  are  doing.     Yes,  that  is 


Plowing  in  Sweden. 


i86 


GERMANY. 


SO,  and  she  knows  it ;  for,  as  you  see,  she  has  unslung  the 
baby,  and  tied  the  two  ends  of  the  cloth  in  which  it  is 
wrapped  to  the  branch  of  that  tree,  so  that  the  little  one 
swings  to  and  fro  in  the  breeze  while  the  mother  works. 
The  Swedes  are  fond  of  their  children.  The  usual  cradle 
is  a  box  with  cords  tied  to  its  corners  and  brought  together 
above  the  center,  so  that  it  can  be  hung  to  a  hook  from 
one  of  the  rafters.  A  slight  push  sets  the  box  swinging, 
and  with  the  motion  the  little  one  drops  off  to  sleep. 


3j»;c 


XX.     IN   THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE. 


WE  have  left  Stock- 
holm and  are 
crossing  the  Baltic  Sea 
on  our  way  to  the  great 
German  Empire.  There 
are  educated  Germans 
on  board,  and  as  some 
of  us  speak  German  we 
have  no  trouble  in  mak- 
ing ourselves  under- 
stood. We  have  so  many 
Germans  in  the  United 
States  that  we  feel  more 
at  home  than  at  any 
time  since  we  left  Eng- 
land. So  we  take  our 
German  Peasants.  maps  and  try  to   get   a 

general  idea  of  the  land  and  its  people  before  we  begin  to 

explore  it. 


IN  THE  GERMAN   EMPIRE.  1 87 

We  learn  that  the  German  Empire  is  composed  of 
twenty-six  states,  of  which  the  largest  are  Prussia  and 
Bavaria,  comprising  about  three  fourths  of  the  whole. 
Prussia  is  much  larger  than  all  the  others ;  and  all  the  states 
are  combined  under  its  king  into  one  great  confederation 
for  protection  against  the  rest  of  the  world  and  to  better 
themselves  in  commerce  and  trade. 

What  a  magnificent  country  Germany  is  and  what  an 
important  position  it  holds  on  the  continent  of  Europe ! 
As  we  travel  over  it  we  shall  see  ^hat  it  could  hardly  help 
being  the  home  of  a  great  people.  It  contains  more  land 
than  any  of  the  other  European  states  except  Russia  and 
Austria-Hungary,  and  nearly  every  bit  of  its  territory  is 
good  for  something. 

The  most  of  the  empire  is  one  vast  farm  divided  up 
into  small  fields  which  are  kept  like  gardens.  It  has  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  vineyards,  grain  fields,  and  pastures ;  and 
it  raises  vast  quantities  of  wheat  and  rye,  oats  and  barley, 
potatoes  and  sugar  beets.  It  has  some  of  the  finest  cattle 
of  Europe  and  is  noted  as  a  stock-raising  country. 

Germany  stands  next  to  Great  Britain  among  the  mining 
countries  of  Europe.  It  has  mountains  rich  in  silver,  lead, 
zinc,  copper,  and  tin.  It  has  more  than  a  thousand  iron 
mines,  and  rich  coal  fields  not  far  from  the  iron,  so  that  a 
vast  manufacturing  industry  has  risen  upon  them.  The 
land  is  a  beehive  of  all  kinds  of  industries.  It  has  more 
than  seven  hundred  factories  which  make  machinery  alone, 
and  among  them  are  some  of  the  largest  factories  of  the 
world.  One  covers  more  than  a  thousand  acres,  and 
another  has  built  more  than  four  thousand  railroad 
locomotives. 

But  Germany  has  other  natural  advantages  in  addition 
to  its  fat  soil  and  rich  mines.     Its  position  and  the  lay  of 

CARP.    EUROPE —  12 


1 88  GERMANY. 

the  land  fit  it  for  the  home  of  a  great  trading  people.  It 
is  situated  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  rich  nations.  It  touches  the  greatest  of  the  European 
states,  and  does  business  with  all  of  them.  On  the  west 
are  the  French,  the  Belgians,  and  the  Dutch,  all  manufac- 
turing people  and  all  anxious  to  buy  and  sell.  On  the 
south  are  the  Austrians,  the  Swiss,  and  also  the  Italians,^ 
for  they  are  accessible  by  the  tunnels  through  the  Alps ; 
while  on  the  east  is  the  vast  population  of  Russia.  The 
Baltic  Sea  gives  an  easy*  sea  road  to  Norway  and  Sweden, 
furnishing  northern  Germany  an  outlet  to  the  ocean,  while 
the  safe  ports  of  Bremen  and  Hamburg  make  the  English 
the  next  door  neighbors  of  Germany,  and  give  it  access  to 
America  and  all  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Now  look  at  the  lay  of  the  land.  Germany  consists 
chiefly  of  a  vast  rolling  plain  gently  sloping  toward  the 
Baltic  Sea  and  the  North  Sea.  It  is  a  part  of  the  lowland 
of  Europe,  which,  beginning  in  Russia,  extends  westward 
to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Farther  south  the  land  rises  ;  the 
plateau  of  Bavaria  begins  and  slopes  upward  to  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Alps ;  so  that  the  whole  of  Germany  may  be 
called  the  northern  slope  of  those  mountains. 

What  should  be  the  condition  of  such  a  country  ?  It 
should  have  plenty  of  water,  for  the  streams  from  the 
mountains  would  flow  through  it.  It  should  have  navi- 
gable rivers,  for  the  slope  is  so  gentle  the  streams  would 
flow  slowly ;  and  it  might  have  canals,  for  it  is  easy  to  cut 
canals  through  a  country  comparatively  level.  This  is  the 
condition  of  Germany.  The  empire  has  great  water  ways 
which  with  their  branches  inclose  it  almost  Hke  a  net.  On 
the  west  the  Rhine,  fed  by  Alpine  glaciers  and  snows,  forms 
a  wide  trade  route  from  the  south  to  the  north.  A  few 
miles  to  the  eastward  is  the  Weser,  another  large  river, 


IN  THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE. 


189 


Bavarian  Farmers. 


and  farther  east  the  Elbe,  carrying  thousands  of  boats  to 
and  from  the  ocean.  Still  farther  to  the  eastward  are  the 
Oder 'and  the  Vistula,  which  flow  into  the  Baltic  Sea ;  they 
are  great  water  ways  loaded  with  traffic  during  most  of 
the  year. 

All  these  rivers  have  navigable  branches,  and  their  main 
streams  run  almost  parallel  with  one  another.  Their  chan- 
nels have  been  deepened  in  places,  and  such  a  system  of 
canals  has  been  constructed  between  them  that  they  give 
the  western,  central,  and  northern  parts  of  Germany  an 
almost   perfect   system   of   commercial   water  ways.      In 


190  GERMANY. 

addition  the  great  Danube  River  rises  in  Bavaria  and  fur- 
nishes a  trade  route  to  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Black 
Sea,  connecting  Germany  with  Asia. 

Is  not  this  a  fine  water  system  ?  It  has  so  many  rivers 
and  canals  that  if  they  were  joined  end  to  end  they  would 
make  a  navigable  highway  nine  thousand  miles  long,  or 
more  than  twice  as  long  as  the  main  stream  of  the  Missis- 
sippi-Missouri, the  longest  river  of  the  world. 

Now  observe  the  lacework  of  steel  tracks  which  covers 
the  German  Empire.  The  land  lies  so  that  railroads  could 
be  easily  built  throughout  every  part  of  it.  We  shall  have 
no  difficulty  in  going  wherever  we  please,  for  Germany  has 
more  railroads  than  any  other  country  except  the  United 
States.  From  Berlin  there  is  scarcely  a  city  in  Europe 
that  cannot  be  reached  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  fast 
express  trains  are  always  shooting  back  and  forth  across 
the  ernpire  from  one  part  of  the  continent  to  another. 
All  the  great  trade  routes  go  through  Germany.  By  the 
tunnels  of  the  Alps  the  cars  bring  the "  passengers  and 
goods  from  Asia,  Africa,  and  Australia  through  Italy  into 
Germany  and  other  parts  of  northern  Europe.  There  are 
fast  express  trains  which  cross  Bavaria  on  their  way  from 
Paris  to  Constantinople,  and  there  are  railroads  to  Russia, 
in  addition  to  the  enormous  system  required  for  the  busi- 
ness of  the  country  itself..^^ 

But  something  more  tl\an  a  fertile  soil,  rich  mines,  a 
network  of  railroads,  good  .seaports,  and  navigable  rivers 
is  needed  to  make  a  country  great  in  manufacturing  and 
commerce.  It  is  necessary  that  it  have  a  thrifty  people 
with  a  talent  for  trade.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  Germans. 
They  are  among  the  best  traders  and  manufacturers  of 
the  world,  and  there  are  so  many  of  them  that  they  hold 
a  very  important   place   in  the  world's  commerce.     Ger- 


IN  THE  GERMAN   EMPIRE.  I91 

many  has  a  larger  population  than  any  other  nation  of 
Europe  except  Russia.  Its  people  are  steadily  growing 
in  number,  and  are  now  pushing  their  commerce  into  all 
parts  of  the  globe. 

The  Germans  are  fast  becoming  a  great  colonial  nation. 
They  have  colonies  in  Africa  and  China,  and  own  many 
islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They  have  five  times  as 
much  land  outside  Europe  as  at  home.  They  have  estab- 
lished their  business  houses  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
not  only  in  their  own  colonies  but  in  all  others ;  so  that 
there  is  scarcely  a  place  of  any  size  in  South  America, 
Africa,  or  Asia  where  you  may  not  find  Germans  selling 
goods,  and  buying  raw  materials  and  other  things  to  be 
sent  back  to  their  people  at  home. 

There  is  one  thing  which  every  one  notices  upon  enter- 
ing Germany,  no  matter  where  he  comes  in.  This  is  the 
enormous  fortifications  which  guard  the  country,  and  the 
soldiers,  who  are  to  be  seen  everywhere.  From  now  on 
we  shall  be  awakened  in  the  morning  by  the  bugle  of  the 
trumpeters  calling  the  companies  to  drill.  ^  We  shall  hear 
the  military  bands  playing,  and  may  have  a  chance  to  see 
some  of  the  maneuvers  or  mock  battles  in  which  many 
regiments  of  cavalry  and  infantry  practice  at  war. 

A  rich  land  like  Germany,  surrounded  by  other  countries, 
must  always  be  on  guard.  Its  frontier  is  more  than  four 
thousand  miles  long,  and  at  points  of  strategic  importance 
enormous  fortresses  have  been  built  and  military  camps 
established.  Railroads  have  been  constructed  so  that 
soldiers  can  be  sent  quickly  to  these  camps  and  fortresses ; 
and  the  telegraph  lines  connecting  them  with  the  capital 
and  with  one  another  have  been  laid  in  secret  trenches 
under  the  ground,  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  easily  found 
and  cut  by  the  enemy. 


192 


cermanv. 


Germany  is  always  striving  to  improve  her  army.  The 
people  are  proud  of  their  soldiers,  and  indeed  they 
have  reason  to  be  so,  for  they  have  one  of  the  finest  armies 
of  the  world.  Every  able-bodied  man  in  the  country  must 
be  a  soldier,  and  in  times  of  war  boys  of  seventeen  may  be 
called  into  the  army.  From  the  age  of  twenty  to  twenty- 
seven  every  well  man  is  expected  to  serve  as  a  soldier, 

and  this  has  made  the 
army  so  large  that  if 
the  Germans  should 
have  a  war  they  could 
easily  put  three  million 
men  in  the  field. 

We  see  something  of 
these  military  defenses 
when,  after  crossing  the 
Baltic,  we  land  in  the 
harbor  of  Kiel.  We 
have  come  here  to  go 
through  the  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  Canal,  which 
has  been  cut  through 
the  land  from  the  Baltic 
Sea  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Elbe,  in  order  that  the 
German  men-of-war  and  other  ships  may  be  able  to  go 
out  to  the  sea  without  taking  the  long  trip  around  Den- 
mark. This  canal  is  about  sixty  miles  long.  It  is  deep 
enough  for  the  largest  steam  vessels  and  so  wide  that  ships 
can  easily  pass.  It  was  completed  in  1895  at  a  cost  of 
almost  forty  million  dollars ;  but  it  is  of  enormous  value  to 
the  Germans  in  the  way  of  trade  and  in  the  defense  of 
their  empire. 


A  German  Windmill. 


IN  THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE.  1 93 

We  steam  into  the  long  wide  harbor  of  Kiel,  passing 
many  German  war  vessels  moving  on  their  way  to  and 
from  the  Baltic  Sea.  There  are  shipbuilding  yards,  docks 
fixed  and  floating,  and  many  foundries  and  arsenals,  mak- 
ing arms  and  fitting  ships  for  war.  This  is  the  chief 
naval  station  of  Germany,  and  there  are  many  war  ships 
here  ready  to  start  forth  if  at  any  time  Germany  should 
have  trouble  with  other  nations.  We  are  almost  deafened 
by  the  din  when  we  leave  our  steamer  and  walk  through 
the  vast  works;  and  we  enjoy  coming  out  again  into  the 
busy  city  of  Kiel,  and  looking  at  the  many  merchant  ves- 
sels which  lie  at  the  wharves ;  most  of  them  are  on  their 
way  to  or  from  the  canal. 

We  enter  the  canal  early  in  the  morning.  Our  ship  is 
raised  by  a  great  lock  from  the  harbor  to  the  canal  level ; 
the  gates  in  front  of  us  are  opened  by  machinery,  and  we 
steam  slowly  on  toward  the  southwest.  The  ride  takes  the 
whole  day.  The  distance  is  not  so  great,  but  there  are  so 
many  ships  going  through  that  it  is  stipulated  none  shall 
steam  faster  than  five  miles  an  hour. 

How  interesting  it  is !  We  can  see  far  away  on  either 
side.  The  land  is  low  and  flat,  and  in  many  places  sandy 
and  swampy.  Now  we  go  by  a  meadow  upon  which 
fat  Holstein  cattle  are  feeding,  and  now  a  marsh  where 
long-legged  storks  are  wading  about,  poking  their  bills 
deep  down  into  the  mud,  searching  for  food.  We  see 
storks'  nests  on  many  of  the  farmhouses;  there  are  wind- 
mills like  those  of  Holland.  We  pass  many  ships,  and 
wave  our  handkerchiefs  to  the  people  on  board.  At  last 
we  enter  the  great  lock  at  the  end,  and  are  lowered  down 
to  the  Elbe,  where  it  flows  out  into  the  North  Sea. 

Here  our  ship  turns  about,  and  we  steam  rapidly  up  the 
wide  estnary  of  the  Elbe ;  and  within  a  few  hours  are  pass- 


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THE  SEAPORTS   OF  GERMANY.  1 95 

ing  through  the  shipping  which  belongs  to  the  port  of 
Hamburg.  Our  boat  steams  into  the  city,  and  when  we 
step  off  we  are  in  one  of  the  most  important  commercial 
centers  of  the  world. 


3>»:« 


XXI.     THE   SEAPORTS   OF  GERMANY. 

HAMBURG  is  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  northern 
Europe.  The  Emperor  Charlemagne  built  a  castle 
here  about  800  a.d.,  and  even  in  the  Middle  Ages  Ham- 
burg had  considerable  trade.  It  is  now  the  biggest  sea- 
port on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  the  chief  outlet  for 
Germany  in  its  commerce  by  sea  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 

But  why  has  Hamburg  become  the  principal  port  of  this 
part  of  Europe  ?.  You  can  see  if  you  will  but  think  for 
a  moment  of  the  vast  industrial  and  commercial  region 
behind  it,  and  how  closely  it  is  connected  with  it  by  river 
and  canal  and  by  rail.  Hamburg  lies  on  the  navigable 
Elbe,  so  far  back  from  the  sea  that  the  shipping  is  safe 
from  the  storms ;  and  here  grelt  highways  of  commerce, 
between  a  great  part  of  northern  Europe  and  the  rest  of 
the  world,  converge.  On  the  Elbe  itself,  goods  are  carried 
clear  across  Germany,  and  on  its  tributary,  the  Moldau, 
far  into  the  great  industrial  province  of  Austria.  All  the 
heavy  traffic  for  Berlin  now  goes  from  Hamburg  by  the 
Havel  and  Spree,  and  is  thence  taken  by  river  and  canal 
to  the  great  water  ways  farther  east. 

Hamburg  has  direct  connection,  not  only  with  our  coun- 
try and  England,  but  also  with  the  principal  ports  of  South 
America,  Australia,  Africa,  and  Asia,  as  well  as  with  those 
of  other  parts  of  Europe.     It  has  a  free  port ;  that  is,  no 


196  GERMANY. 

duty  is  charged  on  goods  which  are  brought  into  the  port 
for  transshipment.  We  see  in  the  harbor,  not  only  German 
ships,  but  ships  from  all  other  countries. 

We  are  surprised  at  the  number  of  vessels  discharging 
goods  from  the  United  States.  See  that  great  steamer 
unloading  cotton,  the  bales  being  lifted  by  derricks  from 
the  ship  right  into  the  warehouses !  A  little  farther  on  is 
one  taking  off  a  cargo  of  meat,  while  others  are  unloading 
wheat  and  corn  in  vast  quantities.  Germany  is  one  of 
our  best  customers.  We  supply  its  cotton  mills  with  raw 
materials,  and  also  furnish  a  large  part  of  its  food,  for, 
although  the  land  is  rich,  it  does  not  raise  enough  to  feed 
all  the  people. 

There  is  a  tank  steamer  which  has  just  arrived  with  a 
load  of  petroleum.  That  cargo  came  from  the  wells  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Pennsylvania.  It  was  carried  in  pipes 
to  the-  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  will  soon  be  on  its  way  to 
light  the  lamps  in  the  homes  of  the  Germans  all  over  the 
empire.  The  Germans  consume  a  great  deal  of  our  copper, 
pig  iron,  and  steel,  and  within  recent  years  we  have  been 
sending  them  many  manufactured  articles.  The  most  of 
our  trade  with  them  is  through  Hamburg  and  the  port  of 
Bremen  on  the  Weser  not  far  away. 

Let  us  continue  our  walk  along  the  wharves.  What 
a  lot  of  them  there  are,  and  what  a  variety  of  shipping ! 
There  is  a  ten  thousand  ton  steamer  which  has  just  arrived 
with  a  cargo  of  wool ;  it  came  from  Australia,  stopping  at 
the  German  colony  of  New  Guinea  on  the  way.  There 
are  tea  and  silk  ships  from  China,  and  there  are  some 
starting  out  on  their  way  to  German  Africa  with  all  sorts 
of  goods  to  be  exchanged  for  palm  oil,  rubber,  and  ivory. 
There  are  EngUsh  ships  discharging  manufactured  goods, 
ItaUan  ships  unloading  oranges,  wines,  and  olive  oil,  vessels 


THE  SEAPORTS   OF  GERMANY. 


197 


from  Norway  and  Sweden  loaded  with  lumber,  steamers 
which  have  just  arrived  from  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  filled  with  nitrate  of  soda  to  fertilize  the  beet- 
sugar  farms,  and  steamers  from  Brazil  with  their  cargoes 
of  coffee  and  rubber.  There  are  so  many  ships  that  our 
heads  grow  dizzy  in  trying  to  remember  what  they  contain, 
and  we  give  up  in  despair. 


Docks,  Hamburg. 

We  walk  along  wharf  after  wharf,  past  miles  of  such 
ships.  The  wharves  are  so  arranged  that  the  vessels  come 
right  to  the  warehouses.  There  are  inclosed  docks,  such 
as  we  saw  in  London  and  Liverpool ;  and  goods  are  also 
being  unloaded  into  flatboats  or  barges,  to  be  towed  by 
the  canals  through  the  city.  There  are  railroad  tracks 
everywhere,  so  that  cars  can  be  brought  right  to  the  ships, 
and  the  freight  handled  quickly  and  cheaply. 


198  GERMANY. 

Many  of  the  warehouses  line  the  canals.  Some  of  them 
have  their  upper  stories  projecting  several  feet  above  those 
below.  They  look  like  gigantic  stairs  turned  upside  down, 
and  seem  to  be  trying  to  reach  out  and  rub  noses  with 
their  neighbors  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  way.  Ex- 
tending out  from  the  roofs  are  beams  holding  pulleys,  to 
which  long  ropes  are  attached  so  that  they  hang  down  over 
the  canal.  There  is  one  now,  with  a  barge  of  wool  bales 
just  below.  The  men  have  wrapped  the  rope  around  one 
of  the  bales  and  fastened  it  tight.  They  have  seized  the 
other  end  of  the  rope,  and,  aided  by  the  pulleys,  are  rais- 
ing the  bale  high  into  the  air.  There,  it  has  reached  the 
third  story  of  the  building,  where  it  is  caught  by  a  hook 
and  pulled  in  through  the  barnlike  doors  which  have  been 
opened  to  receive  it. 

Now  we  have  left  the  ships,  and  are  walking  through 
the  main  business  streets  of  the  city.  Did  you  ever  see 
anything  finer.?  The  stores  contain  beautiful  goods,  and 
the  sidewalks  are  crowded  with  people  as  well  dressed  as 
those  of  New  York. 

We  visit  the  Stock  Exchange  about  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  and  look  down  upon  the  thousands  of  brokers 
and  merchants  who  are  buying  and  selling.  The  din  is  as 
great  as  that  of  our  stock  exchange  in  Wall  Street,  but  the 
language  used  is  the  German,  and  the  brokers  shout  their 
words  so  rapidly  that  we  can  not  understand  them. 

We  stroll  along  the  Binnen  Alster,  a  great  walled  pond 
in  the  heart  of  the  city,  and  then  go  out  to  the  zoological 
gardens  to  see  the  collections  of  lions,  tigers,  and  other 
wild  beasts  for  which  Hamburg  is  noted.  This  place  has 
long  been  famous  as  a  wild  animal  market.  The  ships 
from  Africa,  Asia,  Australia,  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
bring  wild  beasts  with  them  for  sale,  and  any  one  who 


THE  SEAPOfetS  OF  GERMANY. 


i^ 


wishes  can  get  an  elephant,  a  monkey,  a  kangaroo,  or  a 
boa  constrictor,  if  he  will  but  pay  the  price. 

It  is  only  a  short  ride  by  rail  from  Hamburg  to 
Bremen  on  the  river  Weser,  about  forty  miles  from  the 
sea.  This  is  the  other  chief  port  by  which  .Germany  has 
access  to  the  ocean,  and  from  it  many  of  the  German 
emigrants  sail  for 
America.  We  see  a 
ship  starting  out  as 
we  walk  along  the 
wharves.  There  is 
a  crowd  of  men, 
women,  and  children 
at  the  stern,  wav- 
ing with  their  hats, 
shawls,  and  hand- 
kerchiefs a  last  fare- 
well to  their  friends 
and  the  Fatherland. 
There  are  other  emi- 
grants going  on  the 
vessels  near  by,  for 
many,  many  thou- 
sand Germans  leave 
Hamburg  and 
Bremen    everv    vear  "  —  *^^^  quaint  old  city  of  Bremen.* 

to  find  homes  in  the  United  States.  They  think  America 
is  the  best  of  all  foreign  countries,  and  they  come  to 
America  to  work,  knowing  that  they  can  soon  save  enough 
to  have  homes  of  their  own.  They  make  excellent  citi- 
zens, and  we  are  glad  to  have  them  come. 

We  spend  a  few  hours  in  examining  this  quaint  old  city 
of  Bremen.     We  visit  its  factories,  including  its  enormous 


200  GERMANY. 

establishments  for  making  cigars,  snuff,  and  smoking 
tobacco,  and  then  take  a  train  for  a  rapid  look  at  the 
ports  of  the  Baltic,  first  stopping  at  Lubeck,  on  a  little 
river  about  ten  miles  from  the  sea. 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  the  Hanseatic  League  ?  If  not, 
be  sure  not  to  say  so  in  Lubeck,  for  every  child  here, 
no  matter  if  he  be  so  poor  that  he  wears  wooden  shoes,  is 
proud  that  his  city  was  once  a  part  of  it.  This  league 
was  for  two  centuries  and  more  very  important  in  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  It  was  organized  during  the  thir- 
teenth century  by  many  of  the  great  cities  of  different 
parts  of  Europe.  The  people  of  these  cities  banded  to- 
gether to  better  their  trade,  and  to  protect  it  from  the 
pirates  who  then  infested  the  seas,  and  from  the  "  robber 
barons,"  who  lived  in  castles  along  navigable  rivers  and 
exacted  heavy  tolls  from  all  passing  vessels.  The  league 
provided  transport  ships  and  maintained  a  powerful  mili- 
tary force  to  protect  them. 

The  first  two  cities  of  the  league  were  Lubeck  and 
Hamburg,  after  which  came  Bremen,  Danzig,  Berlin, 
Cologne  on  the  Rhine,  Bruges  in  Belgium,  and  more  than 
seventy  others.  These  cities  had  their  own  factories  and 
fisheries.  They  had  their  own  ships,  and  they  also  had 
caravans  of  goods  going  across  Europe.  Their  nierchants 
attended  all  the  great  fairs,  to  which  people  from  every- 
where came  to  buy  and  sell ;  and  the  cities  gradually  grew 
very  rich  and  powerful. 

Of  these  League  cities  .Lubeck  was  the  capital,  and 
Hamburg  and  Bremen  were  of  great  importance  ;  they  all 
remained  independent  towns  for  many  years  after  the 
others  had  come  under  the  rule  of  kings,  and  it  is  only 
within  a  short  time  that  they  have  been  absorbed  by  the 
great  German  Empire. 


THE  SEAPORTS  OF  GERMANY. 


20 1 


We  find  in  Lubeck  many  quaint  old  houses,  some  of 
which  were  put  up  centuries  ago.  The  city  still  has  con- 
siderable commerce,  but  the  discovery  of  America  was  the 
death  blow  to  its  supremacy.  Hamburg,  which  is  only 
thirty-nine  miles  away,  has  absorbed  most  of  its  trade,  and 
it  is  now  even  smaller  than  it  was  during  the  Middle  Ages. 


In  Stettin. 


From  Lubeck  we  go  by  rail  to  Stettin.  The  city  is  on 
both  sides  of  the  River  Oder,  some  distance  in  from  the 
Baltic  Sea.  It  is  an  important  port,  for  it  is  the  most 
southerly  point  that  can  be  reached  by  ships  from  the 
Baltic  Sea  laden  with  goods  for  Germany.  It  has  a  fine 
harbor,  and  is  connected  by  the  Oder  and  canals  with  all 
parts  of  North  Germany,  its  water  ways  being  joined  with 
those  of  the  Elbe,  and  also  with  the  Vistula.  • 

Stettin  is  only  eighty-four  miles  from  Berlin,  and  a  great 


202 


GERMANY. 


deal  of  freight  is  landed  here  for  that  city,  being  taken 
there  by  railroad  as  well  as  by  the  river  and  the  canals. 
We  visit  the  shipbuilding  yards,  where  the  biggest  of  the 
German  vessels  are  constructed,  and  then  take  a  train  for 
Danzig,  the  commercial  center  of  northeastern  Germany, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula. 


Street  in  Danzig, 

Danzig  is  built  on  two  arms  of  the  Vistula,  about  five 
miles  from  the  sea.  It  has  been  called  the  Northern 
Venice,  from  the  canals  running  through  it.  Many  of  its 
houses  are  built  upon  piles.  Some  have  six  or  seven 
stories,  with  quaint  roofs  and  old-fashioned  doors.  We 
see  large  warehouses  with  boats  anchored  before  them, 
and  rafts,  piled  high  with  wheat,  which  have  come  down 
the  Vistula  from  the  rich  farms  of  eastern  Prussia  and 
Poland.     The  wheat  is  here  transferred  to  vessels  which 


BERLIN.  203 

take  it  to  other  parts  of  Germany  by  way  of  the  Baltic 
Sea,  after  which  the  rafts  are  broken  up  and  sold,  and 
their  owners  go  back  to  their  homes  on  foot. 

There  are  rafts  of  lumber  brought  down  the  same  way, 
and  also  queer  river  boats  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  produce. 
There  are  boats  starting  up  the  river  with  manufactured 
goods  and  other  things  which  have  come  in  by  sea.  Dan- 
zig is  the  outlet  for  all  the  timber  grown  in  the  basin  of 
the  Vistula.  It  has  a  great  trade  with  east  Germany,  and 
brings  much  produce  down  from  Russian  Poland  as  well. 
It  is  the  chief  military  post  of  the  northeastern  part  of  the 
Empire,  and  there  are  great  forts  all  about  it,  with  thou- 
sands of  soldiers  to  guard  it. 

There  is  one  fact  in  the  history  of  Danzig  that  we  are 
likely  to  recall  frequently,  ^^cially  in  the  midst  of  summer 
and  winter,  when  we  are  al^^^  asking  how  the  thermometer 
stands.  It  ^s  in  this  city  that  the  man  who  first  perfected 
the  thermometer  was  born,  and  it  was  here  that  he  died,  a.d. 
1736.  His  name  was  Fahrenheit;  and  so  when  you  are 
told  that  the  temperature  is  so  many  degrees  Fahrenheit 
above  or  below  zero,  you  may  remember  that  it  was  a  citi- 
zen of  Danzig  who  has  enabled  us  to  know  just  how  hot  or 
how  cold  it  is. 

XXII.    BERLIN  — THE  CAPITAL  OF  GERMANY. 

WE  start  out  from  our  hotel  in  Berlin  this  morning  to 
learn  something  of  the  capital  of  the  German  Empire. 
The  sun  is  shining,  and  the  city  looks  wonderfully  beautiful 
under  its  rays.  The  blocks  of  Hght  yellow  houses,  four, 
five,  and  six  stories  high,  seem  to  have  received  a  fresh  coat 
of  paint,  the  gilding  and  carving  on  the  palaces  and  great 


204  GERMANY. 

public  buildings  stand  boldly  out,  and  the  statues  of  marble 
and  bronze,  which  are  to  be  seen  in  the  squares,  on  the 
bridges,  and  in  the  gardens  and  parks,  seem  almost  alive. 
The  policemen  strut  about  as  spick  and  span  as  so  many 
dandies,  there  are  soldiers  and  officers  in  uniforms  among 
the  well-dressed  people  on  the  sidewalks,  and  the  whole 
city  looks  new. 

We  drive  through  one  long  street  after  another,  our 
carriage  on  its  rubber-tired  wheels  moving  along  noise- 
lessly over  the  asphalt  pavements.  The  streets  are  wide 
and  well  kept.  There  is  not  a  scrap  of  paper  to  be  seen 
on  the  roadways,  although  some  of  them  are  still  in  the 
hands  of  the  cleaners.  See  those  little  boys  in  caps  and 
uniforms  who  are  pushing  the  dirty  water  toward  the 
sewers.  They  are  scrubbing  the  streets  with  rubber 
mops,  which  leave  them  as  clean  as  a  floor.  Berlin  pays 
a  half  million  dollars  a  year  to  keep  its  strd^s  free  from 
dirt,  and  a  large  part  of  the  work  is  done  by  boys  who 
receive  twenty-five  cents  a  day. 

How  orderly  everything  is  !  The  Germans  are  noted  for 
doing  things  methodically.  The  whole  country  moves  like 
a  machine.  The  police  are  on  hand  everywhere  to  enforce 
the  laws,  and  there  are  so  many  policemen  that  we  are 
seldom  out  of  their  sight.  The  moment  we  arrived  at 
our  hotel,  we  were  given  a  paper  upon  which  we  had  to 
set  down  just  who  we  were,  what  our  business  or  profession 
was,  and  whether  we  should  stay  long  in  the  city  or  not. 
The  government  rules  are  such  that  the  officials  know 
where  each  man  in  Prussia  sleeps  every  night. 

When  we  came  out  this  morning  we  found  the  servants 
cleaning  the  pavement  in  front  of  the  hotel.  We  are  told 
that  the  family  on  the  ground  floor  has  to  clean  the  pave- 
ment in  front  of  the  house  every  morning,  and  are  warned 


BERLIN. 


20$ 


that  if  we  break  a  bottle  or  jug  on  the  street,  the  poHce  will 
make  us  pick  up  the  pieces  and  carry  them  off.  The  Berlin 
boys  dare  not  shoot  with  blowpipes  at  the  birds  in  the 
trees.  In  the  winter  when  there  is  good  skating,  the 
police  put  up  green  flags  to  let  the  children  know  they 
may  skate,  and  they  mark  out  with  red  flags  the  parts 
of  the  ice  they  are  permitted  to  use.  Companies  of  chil- 
dren are  not  allowed  to  go  about  alone  after  dark,  and  if 
a  child  makes  a  noise  on  the  street  his  parents  may  be 
punished. 

In  Berlin,  the  police  watch  even  the  dogs,  and  they  warn 
you  that  your  dog  must  not  bark  on  the  streets  later  than 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening.  There  are  also  fire  police  who 
aid  in  putting  out  fires,  •  j^      . 

and  building  police  who 
see  that  the  mortar  and 
rubbish  of  new  buildings 
are  kept  inside  the  walls, 
and  that  no  one  puts  up 
a  building  or  even  a  busi- 
ness sign  unless  his  plans 
have  been  approved  by 
the  officials.  The  people 
are  proud  of  their  city, 
and  they  will  not  allow 
anything  erected  which 
will  injure  its  beauty. 

But  what  are  the  little 
towers  we  see  on  the 
street  corners !  Each  is  as  big  around  as  a 
hogshead,  and  about  fifteen  feet  high ;  it  is  covered  with 
printed  matter,  and  has  a  clock  ne^  the  top.  Those  are 
the  advertising  stands  of  the  city,  which  announce  what  is 


—  it  is  covered  with 
printed  matter." 


CARP.    EUROPE- 


13 


206  GERMANY. 

going  on  at  the  concert  halls  and  theaters,  and  give  all 
sorts  of  information  valuable  to  strangers.  The  clock  will 
tell  us  the  time,  and  the  thermometer  and  barometer  below 
it  will  tell  us  just  what  the  weather  is.  In  another  section 
of  the  tower  is  a  plan  of  the  streets  about  it,  so  that  we  can 
know  just  where  we  are.  The  tower  gives  the  location  of 
the  nearest  police  station,  hospital,  fire  alarm,  and  post 
office.  There  are  also  some  advertisements  in  frames,  but 
nothing  ugly  or  out  of  place.  The  city  authorities  will 
not  allow  bills  to  be  posted  upon  the  walls,  and  those  who 
advertise  must  use  these  towers,  or  hire  men  to  distribute 
handbills. 

We  conclude  to  get  a  general  idea  of  Berlin  by  riding 
about  it  on  the  Ringbahn  and  Stadtbahn.  The  Ringbahn 
is  a  steam  railroad,  which  runs  around  the  outskirts  of 
the  city.  The  trip  shows  us  what  a  great  place  Berlin 
is.  The  city  covers -more  than  twenty-five  square  miles. 
It  lies  in  and  extends  beyond  the  Spree  River  valley, 
which  is  here  about  three  miles  in  width.  The  country 
about  is  so  sandy  and  marshy  that  Berlin  was  once  nick- 
named "  The  sand  box  of  Europe." 

It  is  an  old  city,  although  it  has  been  growing  so  fast  of 
late  years,  and  has  been  so  much  improved,  that  it  now 
looks  new.  Its  oldest  part  is  on  an  island  in  the  Spree. 
There  was  a  town  there  several  hundred  years  before 
America  was  discovered.  The  Spree  River  gave  the 
people  access  by  the  Havel  to  the  water  ways  of  the 
Elbe,  and  canals  were  made  later  by  which  they  could 
get  to  the  Oder.  The  town  was  situated  jUst  where 
the  trade  routes  to  different  parts  of  northern  Europe 
crossed,  and  so  the  city  soon  becam'e  important.  Later 
it  was  made  the  capital  of  Prussia,  and  it  continued  to 
grow.     Then,  in  1870,  the  Germans  had  their  great  war 


BERLIN.  207 

with  the  French,  and  conquered  them.  After  this  the 
Prussians  persuaded  the  other  German  states  to  unite 
with  them  into  one  Empire,  of  which  the  King  of  Prussia 
should  be  the  Emperor,  and  BerHn  the  Imperial  Cap- 
ital. Since  then  people  from  all  the  states  of  Germany- 
have  come  to  Berlin,  and  it  has  rapidly  increased  in 
size,  wealth,  and  importance.  It  is  now,  next  to  Paris, 
the  greatest  capital  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  its 
people  think  it  will  soon  be  surpassed  only  by  the  city 
of  London. 

We  cross  many  railroads  in  our  ride  on  the  Ringbahn. 
There  are  hundreds  of  smokestacks  on  the  outskirts,  pour- 
ing their  black  columns  into  the  sky.  They  belong  to  the 
factories  of  the  city.  Berlin  is  perhaps  the  greatest  manu- 
facturing town  of  continental  Europe.  It  has  silk,  woolen, 
and  cotton  mills,  it  has  vast  engine  factories,  and  it  makes 
beautiful  gold  and  silver  ware,  fine  jewelry,  and  all  sorts  of 
fancy  goods  and  notions,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  stores  when 
we  shop.  Much  of  the  work  is  done  by  the  people  in  their 
homes,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  small  factories,  as  well 
as  many  large  ones. 

The  Stadtbahn  is  an  elevated  railroad  built  upon  a  wall 
of  masonry  and  iron.  We  cross  the  Spree  three  times 
during  our  ride  upon  it,  and  go  over  bridges  which  have 
been  built  above  the  principal  streets. 

We  leave  the  cars  not  far  from  the  Thiergarten  and 
take  carriages  for  a  drive  through  this,  the  great  park  of 
Berlin.  It  contains  six  hundred  acres,  and  looks  like  a 
cultivated  forest  with  lakes,  little  canals,  and  many  beauti- 
ful walks  and  drives. 

We  visit  the  zoological  garden,  where  we  see  the  keepers 
feed  the  wild  beasts,  and  in  the  monkey  house  see  the 
largest  collection  of  monkeys  in  Europe. 


208  GERMANY. 

In  our  drive  through  the  Avenue  of  Victory,  the  chief 
promenade  of  the  park,-  we  pass  scores  of  well-dressed 
men  and  women  riding  fine  horses.  There  are  beautiful 
carriages  with  coachmen  and  footmen  in  livery,  and  hun- 
dreds of  children  with  their  parents  or  nurses  walking 
about  or  playing  near  the  lakes  and  under  the  trees.  The 
Germans  are  fond  of  nature,  and  even  at  daybreak  there 
are  people  in  the  park. 


Brandenburg  Gate. 

On  going  out  we  drive  by  a  sandstone  column  two 
hundred  feet  tall,  with  a  beautiful  gilt  statue  of  Victory  on 
top.  It  was  erected  in  honor  of  the  victories  of  the  Ger- 
mans over  the  French.  We  then  pass  out  through  the 
Brandenburg  Gate  into  Unter  den  Linden  (oon'ter  dan 
lin'den).  This  gate  is  a  huge  stone  structure  with  five 
entrances,  one  of  which  is  reserved  for  the  king.     It  has 


BERLIN. 


209 


on  its  top  a  magnificent  statue  of  the  Goddess  of  Victory 
riding  in  a  bronze  chariot  drawn  by  four  bronze  horses. 
That  statue  was  captured  by  Napoleon  when  he  conquered 
the  Prussians ;  it  was  taken  to  Paris,  but  was  brought 
back  again  after  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 


WW  111  iii^i^ii 

Of 

Krrr 

Unter  den  Linden. 

We  are  delighted  with  Unter  den  Linden.  It  is  the 
finest  street  of  the  city,  and  one  of  the  famous  streets  of 
the  world.  It  is  as  wide  as  Pennsylvania  Avenue  in 
Washington,  and  is  about  a  mile  long,  extending  from  the 
Thiergarten  to  the  palaces  of  the  king.  It  has  seven  differ  • 
ent  roadways  or  paths,  some  for  heavy  vehicles,  others  for 
carriages,  some  for  people  on  horseback,  and  others  for 
bicycles  and  pedestrians. 

We  ride  through  it  under  the  trees,  admiring  the  large 
public   buildings,  going  by  the  statue   of   Frederick   the 


210  GERMANY. 

Great  and  the  royal  palaces,  and  then,  on  turning  to  the 
right  and  to  the  left,  making  our  way  through  miles  of 
other  streets  walled  with  magnificent  buildings. 

We  ride  through  Friedrich  (fred'rich)  Street  and  Leip- 
siger  (llp'siker)  Street,  by  many  beautiful  stores,  and  go 
on  and  on,  seeing  big  buildings  everywhere.  There  are 
no  little  houses  in  Berlin,  such  as  you  see  in  other  cities, 
and  no  cottages  with  gardens  in  front  of  them,  so  we 
wonder  where  the  poor  live. 

We  soon  discover  when  we  get  out  for  a  walk.  Their 
homes  are  scattered  everywhere  throughout  the  city.  Very 
few  people  own  the  houses  they  live  in.  Nearly  all  hire 
flats  or  apartments,  so  that  you  find  the  rich,  the  well-to-do, 
and  the  poor,  in  the  same  house.  Each  family  has  its  own 
quarters  and  its  own  floor,  according  to  what  it  can  pay. 
In  all  Berlin,  it  is  said,  there  are  only  a  few  thousand 
families  who  have  a  whole  house  to  themselves,  while  a 
multitude  have  less  than  six  rooms,  and  vast  numbers  of 
families  live  in  two  or  three  rooms,  and  in  basements  or 
cellars  under  the  ground. 

Let  us  go  into  one  of  the  big  buildings  and  see  for 
ourselves.  The  one  we  enter  has  six  stories,  extending 
back  from  the  street ;  it  is  built  about  several  great  courts, 
each  walled  with  six  tiers  of  rooms.  We  first  go  into  the 
cellarlike  basement.  At  the  front  are  the  shops  of  a 
butcher,  a  cobbler,  and  a  grocer,  while  farther  back,  each 
living  in  two  or  three  rooms,  are  •  many  poor  families,  the 
most  of  whom  do  work  at  home  for  a  livelihood.  On  the 
first  floor  facing  the  street  there  are  some  good  stores,  not 
unHke  our  stores  at  home.  There  is  a  restaurant  at  the 
corner,  while  in  the  courts  at  the  back  of  the  building  are 
small  shops  and  homes. 

Entering  the  hall,  we  climb  the  stairs  to  the  first  story, 


BERLIN. 


211 


and  there  find  a  number  of  well-to-do  families,  each  of 
which  has  six  or  more  comfortable  rooms  opening  into  one 
another.  On  the  floors  farther  up  we  find  other  apart- 
ments, smaller  and  less  elaborately  furnished,  the  homes 
of  people  who  are  not  so  rich  as  those  just  below,  for  the 
rent  grows  less  the  higher  you  go.     It  is  in  apartments 


"  —  going  by  the  statue  of  Frederick  the  Great." 

like  these  that  the  most  of  the  Berliners  live.  Often  the 
poor  work  in  the  same  room  where  they  sleep,  and  many 
families  have  but  one  room  that  can  be  heated. 

Such  buildings  in  our  cities  would  have  hot  air  furnaces, 
or  steam  or  hot  water  to  heat  them.  Here  the  people 
have  stoves  of  porcelain,  each  so  big  that  it  fills  one  corner 
of  the  room,  reaching  from  the  floor  almost  to  the  ceiling. 


212  GERMANY. 

Near  the  bottom  of  the  stove  is  a  brass  door  a  foot  square, 
and  inside  this  an  iron  door  which  opens  into  a  little  fuel 
chamber.  A  small  amount  of  coal  with  some  kindling  is 
put  in ;  this  will  heat  the  bricks  and  porcelain,  and,  once 
hot,  the  stove  gives  forth  heat  the  whole  day. 

Coming  out,  we  walk  through  one  street  after  another. 
The  most  of  them  are  full  of  people  rapidly  moving  to  and 
fro.  There  are  men  and  women  of  all  classes,  rich  and 
poor,  old  and  young.  Here  come  some  students  from  the 
university,  and  behind  them  boys  with  bags  of  books  re- 
turning from  school.  On  the  corners  are  messengers  in 
caps  and  uniforms,  ready  to  take  bundles  or  notes  for  any 
one  at  a  few  cents  a  trip.  There  are  women  and  men 
carrying  baskets  and  boxes  in  their  arms  and  on  their  backs, 
and  business  men  and  mechanics  rapidly  moving  along. 

What  is  that  black-faced  little  boy  coming  toward  us } 
He  has  a  pole  over  his  shoulder  to  which  a  long  brush  is 
attached,  and  he  carries  a  short  brush  in  his  hands.  He 
does  not  look  like  a  negro.  No,  he  is  a  German  boy,  and 
his  business  is  sweeping  out  chimneys.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  chimney  sweeps  in  Berlin,  boys  and  men  who  go 
down  into  the  chimneys  and  clean  them  out  once  a  year. 

Be  careful  in  crossing  the  streets.  They  are  fulf  of 
vehicles  of  every  description.  There  are  automobiles 
moved  by  steam  and  electricity.  There  are  many  street 
cars ;  there  are  carriages  of  all  kinds,  and  wagons  and 
carts.  There  are  great  drays  dragged  along  by  horses,  and 
little  wagons  hauled  by  dogs.  There  is  a  dog  now  pulling 
a  load  of  fresh  meat  through  the  street.  He  looks  very 
hungry,  and  we  wonder  why  he  does  not  turn  about  and 
take  a  good  meal,  until  we  see  the  wire  muzzle  inclosing 
his  head.  All  dogs  must  have  muzzles,  or  they  will  be 
taken  up  by  the  police  or  the  dog  catchers. 


BERLIN. 


213 


Get  out  of  the  way  of  that  carriage !  Don't  you  hear 
the  driver  hissing  at  you  ?  That  is  the  way  you  are  warned 
to  look  out  in  Berlin.  If  you  allow  yourself  to  be  run 
over,  you  may  be  arrested  and  fined,  for  every  person  on 
foot  is  expected  to  take  care  of  hinlself. 


Beer  Garden. 

What  a  lot  of  restaurants,  hotels,  and  cafes  there  are 
everywhere.  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  chief  occu- 
pation of  the  people  of  Berlin  is  eating,  till  we  see  the 
thriving  general  business  going  on  all  around  us. 

The  Germans  are  fond  of  good  living.  There  are  many 
delicatessen  or  cook  shops,  where  you  can  buy  cakes  and 
pies,  sausages,  and  all  kinds  of  cooked  meat  to  take  home. 
There  are  plenty  of  restaurants,  and  at  frequent  intervals 


214  GERMANY. 

are  cafes  where  you  can  have  a  cup  of  coffee  or  chocolate 
or  some  other  liquid.  Beer  is  sold  almost  everywhere,  for 
it  is  the  favorite  drink  of  the  Germans.  They  take  it  with 
their  meals,  and  also  in  the  beer  gardens,  where  they  sit 
about  at  tables  under  the  trees  and  drink  while  they  listen 
to  the  playing  of  the  bands. 

Early  one  morning  we  go  to  the  market.  It  is  in  an 
enormous  building  roofed  with  glass,  covering  six  acres  of 
ground.  It  has  five  hundred  wholesale  dealers  and  com- 
mission merchants  and  many  retailers.  The  most  of  the 
small  dealers  are  women  who  stand  behind  marble  coun- 
ters, loaded  with  vegetables,  dressed  fowls,  and  meats  of 
all  kinds.  What  a  lot  of  geese  there  are !  The  Germans 
are  so  fond  of  this  fowl  that  Berlin  alone  consumes  two 
millions  of  them  every  year.  It  is  no  wonder  the  cab 
drivers  hiss,  they  eat  so  much  goose ! 

There  is  a  woman  now  bringing  in  a  half  dozen  geese 
in  a  basket.  She  is  one  of  the  porters,  for  the  women  here* 
do  such  work  more  cheaply  than  men.  We  see  them 
everywhere  in  the  market,  going  about  with  great  baskets 
of  meat  and  vegetables  strapped  to  their  backs,  or  standing 
with  their  empty  baskets  waiting  to  carry  provisions  home. 

One  part  of  the  market  is  devoted  to  fish,  of  which  Ber- 
lin eats  forty  million  pounds  every  month.  The  people  are 
determined  to  have  their  fish  fresh,  and  hence  buy  them 
alive.  We  walk  by  one  vat  after  another,  watching  the  fish 
swimming  about  in  the  water,  and  are  told  we  may  choose 
any  we  wish  and  the  fishwife  will  dip  it  out  with  her  net. 

We  have  Jio  difficulty  in  finding  the  butter  and  cheese 
market!  We  have  only  to  follow  our  noses  and  let  them 
follow  the  smell.  Most  German  cheese  has  a  strong  odor, 
and  some  kinds,  such  as  Limburger,  scent  the  whole  build- 
ing.    The  Germans  use  more  cheese  than  we  do,  and  the 


HOW  GERMANY  IS  GOVERNED.  215 

poorer  classes  eat  it  as  a  food  rather  than  as  a  relish  or  for 
dessert.  The  German  butter  is  sweet,  and  of  good  flavor. 
Much  of  it  is  sold  wrapped  up  in  cabbage  leaves,  the 
golden  butter  surrounded  by  green. 


»>©=:< 


XXIII.     THE   EMPEROR— HOW  GERMANY   IS 
GOVERNED. 

WE  see  the  emperor  several  times  during  our  stay  in 
Berlin.  ,  He  often  rides  about  through  the  city  on 
horseback;  he  reviews  his  soldiers  in  person,  and  some- 
times drives  through  the  Thiergarten  in  his  imperial 
carriage.  He  wears  the  uniform  of  a  general  of  his  army, 
and  although  he  "has  great  dignity,  he  looks  much  like  other 
men.  We  are  surprised  to  see  how  his  subjects  revere 
and  admire  him.  They  speak  low  when  talking  about  him, 
and  when  they  meet  him  the  men  and  boys  take  off  their 
hats  and  the  women  bow.  When  he  rides  or  drives  out  in 
procession,  the  roofs,  balconies,  windows,  and  pavements 
are  full  of  people.  The  women  wave  their  handkerchiefs, 
the  men  throw  their  hats  into  the  air,  and  all  cry  out 
Hoch !  Hoch !  Hoch !  which  means  much  the  same  as 
"  Hurrah ! " 

The  German  emperor  is  one  of  the  chief  rulers  of 
Europe.  He  is  known  as  the  Deutscher  Kaiser,  or  Ger- 
man Emperor,  and  also  as  the  King  of  Prussia.  As  Kaiser 
he  governs  about  sixty  million  people,  and  he  has  always 
more  than  a  half  million  soldiers  at  his  command,  while  at 
short  notice  he  can  put  several  times  this  number  of  men 
into  the  field. 

The  German  army  has  some  of  the  best-trained  soldiers 


2l6  GERMANY. 

of  the  world.  We  find  them  drilling  almost  everywhere  in 
and  about  Berlin.  We  are  awakened  in  the  morning  by 
their  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  as  they  pass  our  hotel  on  their 
way  from  one  part  of  the  city  to  another,  and  we  often  see 
regiments  of  infantry  and  cavalry  in  the  streets.  In  the 
drills  the  companies  move  like  so  many  machines,  and  even 
the  cavalry  horses  are  taught  to  take  just  so  many  steps  to 
the  minute.  In  the  maneuvers  or  sham  battles  the  army 
is  divided,  and  thousands  of  soldiers  fight  other  thousands 
for  practice,  using  blank  cartridges,  but  otherwise  acting 
just  as  in  real  war.  The  Germans  are  proud  of  their  army, 
and  all  officials  and  soldiers  are  highly  respected.  As  we 
have  already  learned,  every  man  here  must  be  a  soldier 
for  a  part  of  his  life,  and  every  one  must  be  ready  to  go 
out  and  fight  if  the  emperor  calls  upon  him. 

But  is  it  not  a  dangerous  thing  for  one  man  to  have 
so  many  soldiers  at  his  command  ?  It  might  be  if  the 
emperor  had  the  ambition  of  an  Alexander  the  Great  or 
a  Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  desited  to  conquer  the  world. 
We  must  also  remember  that  the  German  emperor  has  not 
absolute  power  over  the  army,  or  over  his  people.  He  can 
call  out  his  soldiers  at  any  time  to  defend  the  country,  if  it 
should  be  invaded ;  but  he  cannot  make  an  offensive  war 
without  the  consent  of  the  upper  house  of  the  German 
Parliament. 

We  have  seen  how  the  United  Kingdom,  Belgium,  Hol- 
land, Denmark,  and  Norway  and  Sweden  each  has  its 
king  or  queen  who  rules  through  a  congress  or  parliament 
which  votes  all  the  money  and  makes  all  the  laws ;  so  that 
these  monarchies  are  very  Hke  republics  with  hereditary 
presidents.  It  is  much  the  same  in  the  German  Empire, 
save  that  in  local  matters  each  state  has  a  king  or  prince 
of  its  own.     The  Kaiser  has  such  a  position  as  king  of 


HOW  GERMANY  IS  GOVERNED. 


217 


Prussia,  but  as  emperor  he  is  more  like  our  President, 
having  to  do  only  with  matters  that  affect  all  the  states, 
and  that  only  in  connection  with  an  Imperial  Congress. 

This  Congress  consists  of  two  houses,  the  Bundesrat 
(boon'des-rat),  which  has  fifty-eight  members,  appointed  by 
the  governments  of  the  states  for  each  session,  and  the 
Reichstag  (richs'tak),  which  has  three  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  members  elected  for  terms  of  five  years  by  all  the 


"We  visit  the  Reichstag  building." 

people  of  Germany.  In  both  houses  there  are  more 
Prussian  representatives  than  any  others,  for  Prussia  has 
by  far  the  most  people  and  is  the  most  powerful  of  all  the 
states. 

We  visit  the  Reichstag  building.  It  is  a  gorgeous  struc- 
ture decorated  with  statues,  carvings,  and  gold  leaf,  situated 
close  by  the  Thiergarten.  We  pass  the  uniformed  guards 
at  the  entrance  and  in  the  halls,  and  take  seats  in  the 
galleries ;  we  listen  to  the  members  debating,  observing 
that  Germany  has  political  parties  just  as  we  have.     The 


2l8 


GERMANY. 


scenes  of  the  Reichstag  are  much  like  those  of  our  House 
of  Representatives  at  Washington,  while  the  Bundesrat  is 
more  like  our  Senate. 

Afterward  we  go  with  our  guide  to  the  great  palace  of  the 
emperor,  which  stands  at  the  head  of  Unter  den  Linden, 
on  an  island  surrounded  by  the  two  branches  into  which 
the  Spree  divides  at  this  point.    The  building  is  constructed 


^'i^^"'%vkm^-- 

R 

ym 

^"^^^H^j^^^^ 

-iii|r--  -   ^^BlB 

"^^^•^fe, 

--—S^^a&s:::::^^^^^^^ 

Hii: 

■ 

^BBSf' 

,  "  —  the  great  palace  of  the  emperor." 

about  four  courts;  it  is  of  vast  extent,  containing  six 
hundred  different  rooms.  All  the  rooms  are  beautifully 
furnished,  and  we  enjoy  seeing  the  fine  statues  and  paint- 
ings. The  ceilings  are  high,  and  the  floors  so  polished 
that  the  palace  attendant  gives  us  each  a  pair  of  big  felt 
slippers  to  wear  over  our  shoes  as  we  walk  through. 

From  this  palace  we  go  to  others  near  by,  after  which  we 
visit  the  Zeughaus  (zoich'house),  or  arsenal,  full  of  arms  of 


HOW  GERMANY  IS  GOVERNED. 


219 


^^. 

%m'^.. 

^r^z^ 

i 

"We  spend  some  time  in  the  university," 

all  kinds,  and  then  go  to  the  great  museums  and  picture* 
galleries  for  which  Berlin  is  famous.  We  spend  some  time 
in  the  university.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  in  Germany, 
having  about  five  thousand  students.  We  visit  the  other 
schools  which  are  scattered  everywhere  over  the  city, 
and  learn  that  the  Germans  have  an  excellent  school  sys- 
tem, and  that  they  are  among  the  best-educated  people  of, 
the  world.  They  have  day  schools  and  night  schools ;  they 
have  hundreds  of  academies  and  universities,  which  are 
so  good  that  scholars  from  all  parts  of  Europe  and  also 
from  our  country  attend  them.  In  the  Royal  Library  is 
one  of  the  largest  book  collections  in  Europe,  including 
the  first  Bible  ever  printed  with  movable  type.  This  was 
made  by  Gutenberg,  forty-two  years  before  Columbus  dis- 
covered America ;  and  it  might  be  called  the  father  of  the 
millions  of  books  now  printed  each  year. 


220 


GERMANY. 


We  next  go  to  the  stock  exchange,  the  financial  center 
of  the  empire,  and  watch  the  brokers  buying  and  selling 
just  as  we  saw  them  in  the  other  great  cities.  The  Ger- 
mans are  fast  growing  rich,  and  they  have  many  large 
banks.  They  have  fine  stores  everywhere,  and  in  our 
travels  through  Berlin  we  find  numerous  evidences  of  their 
wealth  and  prosperity. 


Sans  Souci. 

There  is  no  lack  of  amusements  in  the  German  capital 
There  are  more  than  a  score  of  theaters,  a  large  opera 
house  partially  supported  by  the  government,  and  so  many 
concert  halls  that  we  can  hear  good  music  in  almost  every 
block.  We  enjoy  especially  the  military  bands  which  play 
in  the  parks. 

We  take  excursions  to  the  great  resorts  in  the  suburbs 
of  Berlin,  and  spend  one  day  at  Potsdam  on  the  Havel,  a 


HOW  GERMANY   IS   GOVERNED. 


221 


half  hour  by  rail  from  the  capital.  Here  the  imperial 
family  have  their  summer  palaces  surrounded  by  beautiful 
gardens.  There  are  'many  fine  buildings,  each  of  which 
has  its  history  and  features  of  interest.  In  the  Palace  of 
Sans  Souci  (saN  soose-e),  for  instance,  we  are  shown  the 
chamber,  or  grotto,  walled  and  ceiled  with  shells  and  min- 
erals and  precious  stones,  which  Frederick  the  Great  con- 
structed during  one  of  his  wars.     According  to  the  story 


r 


^-'^^^       iW.')'^?'^'-'. 


PT^'  '' 


Babelsburg. 

of  our  guide,  Frederick  had  spent  almost  all  his  money  in 
fighting,  and  his  enemies,  thinking  he  was  at  the  end  of 
his  resources,  were  preparing  to  crush  him.  Then  he 
began  to  build  this  gorgeous  jewel  chamber,  pouring 
money  into  it  as  though  there  was  no  end  to  his  wealth. 
Its  extravagance  made  his  enemies  think  he  had  all  the 
money  he  needed,  and  caused  them  to  withdraw  from  the 
field. 

Not  far  from  Sans  Souci  is  Babelsburg,  which  was  the 
favorite  summer  home  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm  I,  who,  after 

CARP.   EUROPE — 14 


222  GERMANY. 

he  defeated  the  French  in  1871,  was  chosen  the  first 
German  emperor.  It  is  very  beautiful,  and  so  plainly 
furnished  that  it  seems  more  like  the  home  of  a  rich 
citizen  than  like  the  palace  of  an  emperor. 

Wilhelm  I  was  noted  for  his  simplicity  and  kindness; 
many  stories  are  told  of  his  love  for  children.  He  was 
especially  fond  of  flowers.  There  is  one  flower  which 
grows  wild  all  over  northern  Germany  which  is  often 
called  the  Kaiser  Blume,  or  the  emperor's  flower.  It  is 
like  a  dandelion  in  form ;  its  petals  are  a  bright  navy  blue. 
We  gather  great  bunches  of  it  as  we  walk  through  the 
country,  and  find  it  everywhere  in  the  grain  fields  on  the 
outskirts  of  Berlin. 

A  story  is  told  of  two  peasant  children  who,  having 
heard  that  the  Kaiser  loved  these  flowers,  gathered  some 
for  him,  and  walked  all  alone,  several  miles,  into  Berlin. 
Here  they  had  much  trouble  in  finding  the  palace  where 
the  emperor  lived,  but  at  last  they  succeeded.  A  guard 
dressed  in  a  gorgeous  uniform  met  them  at  the  gate ;  he 
looked  so  grand  that  they  supposed  he  was  the  emperor, 
and  with  great  trembling  told  him  their  errand.  He  was 
about  sending  them  away  unsatisfied,  when  a  plain,  kind 
looking  old  man  came  out  and  asked  what  they  wanted. 
At  this  the  guard  stepped  back,  and  the  little  ones  again 
told  their  story.  The  old  man  took  the  bouquet  and  ask-ed 
them  to  come  in,  saying  he  would  present  the  flowers  to 
His  Majesty.  He  gave  them  seats  in  a  beautiful  room ; 
a  moment  later  a  soldier  appeared,  and  told  the  children 
that  the  Kaiser  would  see  them.  They  then  went  with 
the  soldier  into  another  room  which  was  even  more  beauti- 
fully furnished,  and  there  they  saw  the  same  kind  old  man 
who  had  let  them  in.  He  held  their  flowers  in  one  hand, 
and  reached  out  the  other  to  them,  shaking  hands  with 


RURAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  GERMANY.      223 

them  and  patting  them  on  the  head.  It  was  the  emperor 
himself.  He  talked  with  the  little  ones  for  a  moment,  and 
ordered  his  servants  to  show  them  the  palace.  After  this 
he  gave  each  a  present,  and  sent  them  home  the  happiest 
and  proudest  children  in  Germany. 

XXIV.     RURAL   AND   MANUFACTURING 
GERMANY. 

WE  have  left  the  capital,  and  are  traveling  leisurely 
from  place  to  place  by  rail  through  the  great  Ger- 
man Empire.  How  clean  the  stations  are,  and  how  orderly 
everything  is!  The  station  agents  and  railroad  guards 
are  in  uniform ;  they  are  public  officials,  for  the  railroads 
here  belong  to  the  government.  They  tell  us  just  where 
to  go,  and  just  what  we  may  and  may  not  do.  We  are 
locked  in  during  our  journeys,  and  must  be  at  the  stations 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  leaving  time,  or  wait  for  the 
next  train.  When  we  stop  at  a  town,  the  officials  give  us 
a  metal  ticket  bearing  a  number  showing  us  just  what  cab 
we  may  take. 

Every  station  has  its  first,  second,  and  third  class  wait- 
ing-rooms, each  with  its  restaurant ;  and  there  are  first  and 
second,  and  sometimes  third  and  fourth  class  cars.  The 
fourth  class  cars  are  very  uncomfortable,  for  the  seats  are 
hard  wooden  benches.  We  usually  ride  second  class,  for 
we  wish  to  be  with  the  people,  and  they  are  so  economical 
that  they  seldom  go  first  class. 

We  visit  Breslau,  the  second  city  of  Prussia,  the  great 
wool  and  grain  market  on  the  Oder,  and  then  cross  over 
to  Saxony  and  spend  some  time  in  Dresden  on  the  Elbe, 
and  in  Leipsig  and  Chemnitz. 


224  GERMANY. 

What  a  busy  country  Germany  is,  and  how  thrifty !  The 
most  of  the  farms  are  small,  but  they  are  kept  like  gar- 
dens. There  are  no  fences,  and  we  ride  for  miles  over  flat 
plains  which,  with  their  different-colored  crops,  look  like 
a  great  patchwork  quilt  spread  out  before  us.  The  barn- 
yards have  many  fat  cattle  ;  they  are  usually  kept  shut 
up  and  the  grass  is  cut  and  brought  to  them.  We  fre- 
quently see  flocks  of  sheep  and  geese,  watched  by  a 
woman,  who  knits  as  she  keeps  them  from  straying. 

Now  we  are  passing  a  smooth  white  road  lined  with 
trees;  the  rows  seem  to  meet  in  the  distance  as  the  road 
stretches  on  and  on.  There  is  a  woman  with  a  flag  guard- 
ing the  railroad  track  while  the  train  passes.  Now  we  are 
going  by  a  farm  village  close  to  the  railroad.  The  houses 
are  of  brick  or  stucco,  with  roofs  of  red  tile  or  gray  thatch, 
and  with  great  rafters  or  beams  set  into  the  walls.  The 
houses  are  built  close  to  the  street,  with  gardens  behind 
them.  The  people  do  not  live  on  their  farms,  but  in  these 
little  villages,  and  go  out  to  their  work. 

Observe  how  carefully  the  farming  is  done  !  There  are 
many  fields  of  wheat  and  rye,  and  many  of  beets,  for 
beet  sugar  is  one  of  the  chief  exports  of  Germany.  The 
beets  are  hoed  frequently  and  are  kept  perfectly  free  of 
weeds.  They  are  cut  up  and  boiled  in  steam  reservoirs  to 
get  out  the  sugar,  which  is  shipped  to  the  markets  all 
over  the  world. 

What  a  lot  of  women  there  are  at  work  in  the  fields !  So 
many  of  the  men  are  in  the  army  that  the  women  and 
girls  do  all  sorts  of  hard  labor.  In  some  fields  there  are 
more  women  than  men.  We  see  them  hoeing  and  spad- 
ing. They  aid  in  the  harvesting,  turning  the  grass  with 
pitchforks  that  it  may  dry  the  more  quickly;  they  rake  it 
together  and  even  help  load  it 


RURAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  GERMANY. 


225 


"They  do  much  of  the  carting,  too." 

They  do  much  of  the  carting,  too.  For  instance,  in 
one  of  the  smaller  cities  through  which  we  pass  we  see 
a  woman  driving  a  yoke  of  oxen.  They  are  drawing  a 
farm  wagon  loaded  with  beets  grown  on  a  farm  several 
miles  away. 

In  Bavaria  one  may  see  women  sawing  wood  or  break- 
ing stones  on  the  streets  of  the  cities.  They  sometimes 
carry  mortar  for  the  masons,  and  also  drag  about  little 
carts  loaded  with  milk  or  vegetables,  aiding  the  dogs  which 
are  harnessed  up  with  them.  They  receive  lower  wages 
than  the  men,  although  they  work  very  hard. 


226 


GERMANY. 


We  are  delighted  with  Dresden.  It  is  the  capital  of  the 
kingdom  of  Saxony,  and  is  one  of  the  finest  cities  of 
Europe.  The  city  seems  one  great  museum,  there  are 
so  many  statues,  fine  buildings,  and  collections  of  curiosi- 
ties and  art.  Even  the  palace  of  the  king  has  a  museum 
in  it,  and  a  very  wonderful  museum  too.     It  is  the  treasure 


"We  are  delighted  with  Dresden." 

chamber  of  the  royal  family,  and  is  called  the  Green 
Vault.  It  is  filled  with  curiosities  and  jewels,  with  gold 
and  silver  plate,  and  with  wonderful  carvings  of  gold, 
silver,  and  ivory.  We  walk  through  room  after  room, 
looking  at  the  golden  dishes  and  precious  cups  and  vases. 
We  see  all  sorts  of  queer  little  figures  of  men  and  animals 
made  of  misshapen  pearls,  and  stay  long  before  the  Green 
Diamond,  which  weighs  five  and  one-half  ounces  and  is 
one  of  the  largest  diamonds  known.  In  the  Dresden 
Picture  Gallery  we  are  shown  one  of  the  finest  collections 


RURAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  GERMANY. 


227 


of  paintings,  including  the  Sistine  Madonna  of  Raphael, 
considered  by  many  to  be  the  most  beautiful  picture  ever 
painted. 

We  visit  the  Historical  Museum,  the  Japanese  Palace, 
and  other  such  places,  until  we  are  tired  of  paintings  and 
statues,  and  are  glad  to  get  out  among  the  people  in  the 
Grosser  Garten,  the  royal  park  of  the  city,  or  to  sit  down 
for  a  drink  of  lemonade  upon  the  Briihl  Terrace,  which 
borders  the  Elbe,  where  every  evening  there  are  hundreds 


Museum,  Leipsig. 

of  people  walking  about  or  sitting  at  the  tables  under  the 
trees,  listening  to  the  music  for  which  the  Germans  are 
famous. 

A  short  ride  from  Dresden  brings  us  to  Leipsig,  the  chief 
commercial  city  of  Saxony.  It  is  situated  on  a  plain,  at 
the  junction  of  several  rivers,  so  that  it  forms  one  of  the 
best  supply  and  shipping  points  for  the  manufacturing 
districts  of  Saxony. 


228  GERMANY. 

Leipsig  has  many  factories,  and  it  is  also  the  greatest 
book  publishing  town  of  the  world.  It  has  five  hundred 
booksellers  and  one  hundred  printing  offices,  in  which  are 
made  more  than  sixty  million  books  every  year.  It  holds 
book  fairs  which  are  attended  by  booksellers  from  all  over 
Germany.  It  is  a  great  educational  center  and  its  univer- 
sity has  one  thousand  students.  It  has  fairs  at  which  furs, 
leather,  cloth,  glass,  and  other  things  are  sold,  and  also  has 
long  been  noted  as  a  fur  and  leather  market. 

We  have  seen  many  factories  during  our  travels  through 
Germany.  Each  district  has  its  manufacturing  towns,  and 
the  country  fairly  hums  with  moving  machinery.  Saxony 
is  more  like  the  Midlands  of  England  than  any  part  of  the 
European  continent.  The  country  is  more  thickly  settled 
than  almost  any  place  in  the  world  except  some  provinces 
of  China,  and  it  is-  doubtful  whether  any  part  of  China 
has  more  people  to  the  acre  than  this  region  where  we 
now  are. 

Why  is  this  so  ^  We  have  learned  that  such  conditions 
always  have  their  geographical  reasons ;  and  it  is  not  hard 
for  us  to  see  some  of  the  reasons  for  the  dense  population 
and  vast  industries  of  Saxony.  In  the  southern  part  of 
the  kingdom  are  the  Erzgebirge,  or  ore  mountains,  filled 
with  minerals.  There  are  large  coal  fields  near  by,  so  that 
manufacturing  can  be  done  very  cheaply.  Saxony  is  noted 
for  its  sheep  and  fine  wool,  and  great  woolen  mills  have 
grown  up  here  which  are  shipping  goods  to  all  parts  of 
Europe  and  to  the  United  States.  Any  of  our  dry  goods 
merchants  can  tell  you  something  about  this  wool,  and 
many  American  girls  use  the  beautiful  Saxony  yarns  for 
crocheting  and  knitting. 

The  city  of  Chemnitz,  southeast  of  Leipsig,  has  been 
called  the  Manchester  of  Germany.      It  makes  about  as 


RURAL  AND   MANUFACTURING  GERMANY.  229 

many  things  as  Manchester,  England,  and  is  almost  as 
busy.  We  visit  the  great  factories  there  and  in  the  vil- 
lages near  by.  Each  of  the  villages  is  made  up  of  some 
large  workshops,  with  the  plain  simple  houses  of  the 
working  people  about  them. 

As  we  go  on  with  our  trip,  we  are  surprised  at  the  many 
goods  of  all  kinds  which  are  made  outside  the  factories. 
In  some  parts  of  Germany  it  is  hard  to  find  a  house  in 
which  the  people  are  not  making  something  for  sale.  We 
saw  thousands  of  workshops  in  the  cellars  of  Berlin  ;  there 
were  thousands  of  little  workshops  in  Leipsig  and  Breslau ; 
and  we  have  found  vast  numbers  in  the  smaller  towns  and 
villages. 

In  some  houses  the  people  are  weaving  the  most  beauti- 
ful silks,  velvets,  and  plushes  on  hand  looms.  In  others 
they  are  making  woolens  and  linens  in  the  same  way. 
Here  they  are  knitting  stockings,  there  making  clothing, 
while  a  little  farther  on  we  find  them  busy  pounding  out 
nails  and  carving  beautiful  things  from  wood. 

The  work  goes  on  in  the  mountains  as  well  as  on  the 
plains.  In  the  Thuringian  Forest,  for  instance,  there  are 
thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  who  are  always 
making  toys,  and  it  is  the  same  in  and  about  the  quaint  old 
city  of  Nuremberg,  Bavaria.  Germany  sells  more  toys 
than  any  other  country,  and  many  of  those  we  see  being 
made  will  be  shipped  to  the  United  States  in  time  for  the 
next  Christmas  trade. 

The  toy  makers  live  in  mean  little  houses.  Many  of 
them  have  but  two  rooms,  and  the  air  within  is  filled  with 
the  smell  of  the  fresh  paint  of  the  toys  which  are  drying 
on  boards  laid  on  the  stove.  You  would  not  think  beauti- 
ful things  could  come  out  of  such  places,  and  it  really  seems 
hard  that  these  people  should  labor  so  for  our  pleasure. 


230  GERMANY. 

'  They  receive  very  low  wages.  The  girls  working  on  toys 
get  less  than  twenty  cents  a  day,  and  the  men  making 
mouth  organs  less  than  three  dollars  a  week.  In  the  large 
establishments  the  wages  are  higher. 

But  suppose  we  enter  one  of  the  factories,  and  see  how 
they  make  the  doll  babies  which  so  delight  the  souls  of 
our  Uttle  sisters  at  home.  We  first  visit  the  rooms  where 
cheap  wax  dolls  are  made.  The  bodies  of  the  dolls  are  of 
coarse  white  cloth  stuffed  with  sawdust,  and  their  heads, 
arms,  and  legs  are  of  papier-mach^  coated  with  wax. 
The  different  parts  of  the  dolls  are  made  in  different 
houses,  and  many  hands  are  engaged  on  each  doll.  Cer- 
tain workmen  cut  the  arms  and  legs  out  of  wood  or  mold 
them  and  the  heads  out  of  papier-mach6.  Others  dip  the 
arms  and  legs  into  basins  of  pink  dye  to  give  them  a  flesh 
color,  while  others  paint  the  eyebrows,  lips,  and  hair  on 
the  heads ;  or  if  the  dolls  are  to  have  something  better 
than  painted  hair,  mohair  is  glued  on.  There  are  other 
workmen  who  make  dolls'  eyes  from  glass  tubes  that  they 
melt  over  gas  flames  and  then  blow  into  shape.  They  also 
fasten  the  eyes  in  the  heads.  So  you  see  a  doll  baby  that 
costs  only  twenty-five  cents  requires  the  work  of  many 
people  before  it  is  finished  and  dressed  in  its  coarse  cotton 
chemise  ready  for  sale. 

The  fine  dolls  require  a  great  deal  more  work.  Many 
of  them  have  bisque  heads  made  of  kaolin,  a  fine  clay, 
which  is  molded  into  shape  and  then  burned,  just  as  we 
saw  them  burning  china  at  Limoges  in  France  and  in 
Delft,  Holland.  After  this  the  dolls'  heads  are  painted 
and  then  burned  again.  The  making  of  the  wigs  for  some 
dolls  is  a  fine  art ;  human  hair  is  sometimes  used  in  them ; 
and  dressing  dolls  is  also  an  art  which  keeps  thousands  of 
women  and  girls  busy  year  in  and  year  out 


RURAL  AND   MANUFACTURING  GERMANY.  23 1 

How  would  you  like  to  take  a  canary  bird  home  to  re- 
mind you  of  your  travels  in  Germany  ?  In  the  Harz 
Mountains  and  about  Hanover  there  are  thousands  of 
people  who  raise  canaries  for  sale.  Nearly  every  little 
house  has  cages  hung  to  the  walls  of  its  sitting  room,  bed- 
room or  garret,  and  each  cage  has  one  or  more  of  these 
beautiful  birds. 

In  some  of  the  cages  the  canaries  are  sitting,  hatching 
their  young.  These  cages  have  the  floor  covered  with  dried 
moss,  of  which  the  female  bird  shapes  her  nest,  lining  it 
with  cotton  or  Unt.  She  insists  on  making  it  for  herself, 
and  if  a  ready-made  nest  is  supplied,  will  build  another, 
sometimes  tearing  out  her  own  feathers  to  build  it.  She 
lays  from  four  to  six  eggs  three  or  four  times  a  year.  It 
takes  about  two  weeks  for  the  eggs  to  hatch,  and  it  is  six 
weeks  more  before  the  little  canary  chicks  are  old  enough 
to  leave  their  mothers  and  have  separate  cages. 

The  birds  are  encouraged  to  sing  by  being  placed  near 
older  birds  which  sing  well.  In  the  autumn,  they  are  sold 
to  bird  merchants  who  ship  them  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 
About  one  quarter  of  a  million  birds  are  raised  in  this  way 
here  every  year,  and  of  these  many  thousands  are  sent  to 
the  United  States  to  be  sold.  The  best  singers  come  from 
the  Harz  Mountains,  and  bring  high  prices,  but  ordinary 
birds  sell  for  seventy-five  cents  or  a  dollar  apiece. 

The  birds  are  shipped  in  cages  to  New  York,  with  care- 
ful attendants  who  see  that  they  are  watered  and  fed  every 
day.  One  .man  has  charge  of  about  a  thousand  birds,  each 
in  its  own  little  wooden  cage,  so  that  he  has  plenty  to  do 
during  the  voyage.  The  ^  cages  are  made  by  the  peasants 
in  their  homes ;  and  the  birds  are  raised  chiefly  by  poor 
weavers  or  miners,  who  rely  on  them  for  a  part  of  their 
support. 


232 


GERMANY. 


The  Harz  Mountains  are  one  of  the  chief  mining  dis- 
tricts of  Germany.  They  contain  all  sorts  of  ores,  and 
there  are  other  regions,  such  as  the  Erzgebirge,  the 
Thuringian,  along  the  Rhine,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ruhr, 
and  in  Silesia,  where  coal,  iron,  and  zinc,  and  other  metals 


Salt  Works,  Kreuznach,  Prussia. 

are  found.  There  is  one  district  in  Prussia,  not  far  from 
the  Elbe,  which  contains  wonderful  salt  mines.  Here  there 
are  great  beds  of  almost  pure  rock  salt  with  potash  salts 
above  them.  The  potash  salts  are  used  for  making  soap, 
glass,  pottery,  and  gunpowder.  They  are  also  used,  under 
the  name  of  kainit,  as  a  fertilizer,  and  as  such  are  shipped 


RURAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  GERMANY.      233 

in  vast  quantities  to  the  United  States  to  be  sold  to  our 
farmers. 

And  so  we  go  on  traveling  about  from  one  part  of 
Germany  to  another.  We  visit  Hanover,  Halle,  Nurem- 
berg, Magdeburg,  and  many  other  large  cities,  stopping 
now  and  then  in  the  busy  manufacturing  districts  and 
other  interesting  places.  At  Meissen,  near  Dresden,  we 
learn  how  the  famous  Dresden  china  is  made ;  in  Krefeld, 
on  the  west  of  the  Rhine,  we  see  looms  weaving  silks  and 
velvets  almost  as  fine  as  those  of  Lyons ;  and  at  Essen, 
on  the  east  of  that  river,  we  visit  the  vast  works  of  Krupp, 
where  are  hundreds  of  acres  of  iron  foundries  and  rolling 
mills,  with  Jx  forest  of  smokestacks  filling  the  sky  with  dark 
clouds.  We  go  through  the  shops.  They  are  the  largest 
of  their  kind  in  Europe,  and  have  all  sorts  of  machinery, 
some  so  fine  that  a  single  hammer  weighing  fifty  tons  is 
said  to  have  cost  a  half  million  dollars. 

Everywhere  we  travel  in  Germany  we  find  schools  for 
teaching  the  more  important  branches  of  the  manufactur- 
ing industries.  In  some  towns  the  students  learn  how  to 
make  porcelain,  in  others  they  design  patterns  for  weaving, 
and  in  others  study  all  about  working  in  wood,  iron,  and 
steel.  There  are  business  schools,  farming  schools,  mining 
schools,  and  schools  for  educating  boys  in  commerce  and 
trade. 

Most  of  the  schools  have  night  sessions,  and  many  of 
the  mechanics  attend  them.  These  are  very  important  to 
the  country,  for  through  them  the  Germans  are  fast  becom- 
ing the  most  intelligent  and  most  skilled  workmen  of 
Europe.  They  already  rank  next  to  the  English  as  the 
chief  of  the  European  manufacturing  nations.  Their  com- 
merce is  steadily  increasing,  and  they  are  fast  growing  in 
industry  and  wealth. 


234 


GERMANY. 


XXV.     UP  THE   RHINE   TO    SWITZERLAND. 


a  trip  up  the  Rhine." 


TO-DAY  we  are  to  take  a  trip  up  the  Rhine.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  important  rivers  of  Europe,  although 
by  no  means  the  largest.  The  Danube  is  more  than  twice 
as  long,  and  the  Volga  about  three  times  as  long,  as  the 

Rhine,  and  their  vol- 
umes are  very  much 
greater. 

Still,  the  Rhine  is 
more  important  than 
either  of  these 
streams,  for  it  flows 
through  the  busiest 
part  of  the  continent, 
forming  a  great  com- 
mercial highway  from  the  south  to  the  north.  Its  springs 
are  found  in  the  glaciers  and  snows  of  the  Alps.  It  rises 
on  one  side  of  Saint  Gothard  (got'ard),  near  the  source 
of  the  Rhone  and  not  far  from  the  tunnel  where  the  rail- 
road goes  through  to  Italy,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  above 
the  level  of  the  sea.  It  is  fed  by  many  an  ice-cold,  milk- 
white  glacial  stream  as  it  dashes  along  down  the  Alps 
into  the  beautiful  Lake  Constance.  It  comes  out  of  this 
placid  bed  only  to  t^ke  another  tumble  at  Schaffhausen 
(shaf-how'zen)  over  the  greatest  falls  of  Europe,  and  then 
flows  on  west  to  Basel  (ba'zel),  where  it  turns  to  the  north 
and  gives  a  safe  and  deep  waterway  to  the  North  Sea. 

The  Rhine  carries  a  large  part  of  the  commerce  of  this 
region.  Hundreds  of  steamers  and  five  or  six  thousand 
great  barges  are  always  moving  up  and  down  its  waters, 
and  the  traffic  upon  it  is  almost  as  great  as  upon  the  rivers 


i 


UP  THE  RHINE   TO  SWITZERLAND.  235 

of  China.  There  are  boats  carrying  wine,  grain,  and  mer- 
chandise of  all  kinds ;  boats  loaded  with  freight  which  will 
be  transferred  to  the  railroads  to  go  over  the  Alps  into 
Italy ;  and  others  filled  with  merchandise  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  other  places  beyond  the  mountains.  There 
are  rafts  of  timber  cut  from  the  Black  Forest  floating 
down  toward  Holland,  and  it  may  be  manufactured  goods 
on  their  way  to  New  York  by  way  of  the  Rhine  and  the 
ocean. 

The  Rhine  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  history  of 
Europe.  Before  railroads  were  constructed,  it  was  even 
more  important  than  now,  for  it  then  formed  the  easiest 
road  from  Italy  and  the  south  to  central  and  northern 
Europe.  Silks  and  other  fine  goods  from  Asia  were 
shipped  across  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  along  the  Adri- 
atic Sea  to  Venice,  whence  they  were  carried  over  the 
passes  in  the  Alps  to  the  Rhine,  and  thence  to  different 
parts  of  northern  Europe,  and  especially  to  the  rich  cities 
in  Holland  and  Belgium  about  its  mouths.  Goods  from 
the  north  were  sent  back  in  exchange,  and  a  steady  stream 
of  merchandise  and  traders  passed  up  and  down. 

Even  in  the  times  of  the  Romans  the  Rhine  had  its 
important  cities  and  towns.  Caesar  led  his  soldiers  along 
its  banks ;  Charlemagne,  another  great  conqueror,  fought 
many  battles  near  it;  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte  marched 
his  armies  back  and  forth  across  it.  There  is  hardly  a 
foot  of  the  Rhine  which  has  not  its  notable  history,  and 
every  town  and  castle  we  pass,  if  it  could  speak,  might 
tell  an  interesting  story. 

At  present  the  greater  part  of  the  river  belongs  to 
Germany,  only  its  beginning  and  ending  being  in  other 
countries.  It  forms  a  part  of  the  boundary  between 
Switzerland  and  Germany;  and  until  the  Germans  con- 


236  GERMANY. 

quered  the  French  in  1870,  it  was  the  boundary  between 
Germany  and  France.  After  that  conquest  the  Germans 
moved  their  boundary  line  farther  west,  so  that  now  France 
has  no  land  on  the  Rhine.  The  Germans  are  proud  of  this 
fact,  and  they  always  speak  of  the  Rhine  as  their  river 
and  often  call  it  "  Father  Rhine." 

As  we  look  at  the  map  of  Europe,  however,  it  seems  to 
us  that  Holland  has  a  better  right  to  boast  of  its  inherit 
ance  from  the  Rhine,  for  that  low  country  was  largely 
built  up  by  the  earth  washings  brought  down  by  its 
waters,  and  it  is  still  fed  by  them.  We  saw  one  mouth 
of  the  Rhine  at  Rotterdam,  where  it  is  walled  in  between 
its  embankments,  and  another  where  it  flows  into  the 
Zuider  Zee. 

Our  journey  begins  at  Cologne  (co-l6n'),  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river.  This  is  the  chief  commercial  city  of  the 
Rhine  basin,  and  one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  Ger- 
many. It  is  about  as  large  as  Buffalo,  and  has  many 
manufacturing  industries.  It  is  an  old  city.  Like  Lubeck 
and  Hamburg,  it  was  one  of  the  chief  towns  of  the  Han- 
seatic  League,  and  it  had  at  one  time  during  the  Middle 
Ages  as  many  as  eighty  thousand  weavers.  Owing  to  the 
trade  of  the  Rhine  and  the  looms,  its  people  were  then  so 
rich  that  their  neighbors,  instead  of  saying  a  man  was  as 
rich  as  Midas,  would  say  he  was  as  rich  as  a  cloth  mer- 
chant of  Cologne. 

We  take  a  view  of  the  city  from  the  .spires  of  the  cathe- 
dral, climbing  round  and  round,  up  the  steps,  inside  one 
of  the  towers,  until  we  are  at  last  far  above  the  body  of 
the  great  structure,  and  on  one  of  the  highest  towers  of 
the  world.  The  top  of  the  spires  above  us  are  five  hun- 
dred and  twelve  feet  above  the  ground,  only  forty-three 
feet  lower  than  the  top  of  the  monument  at  Washington. 


UP  THE  RHINE  TO   SWITZERLAND. 


237 


"Our  journey  begins  at  Cologne." 


From  the  spire  we  can  see  the  Rhine  winding  its  way 
about  the  city,  which  stretches  out  over  the  plain  at  the 
back.  We  cast  our  eyes  down  upon  the  great  building 
below  us.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  of  the  Euro- 
pean churches.  It  covers  almost  two  acres  of  ground,  and 
has  cost  almost  as  much  as  our  Capitol  at  Washington. 
li  Was  begun  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  was  not  completed 
until  1883,  when  the  great  bells  in  the  towers  were  rung 
for  hours  in  honor  of  the  event.  We  look  at  the  bells  as 
we 'go  down.  One  of  them  is  so  large  that  it  takes  more 
than  a  score  of  men  to  ring  it.  It  is  called  the  emperor's 
bell,  as  we  see  from  the  German  words  carved  on  the  out- 
side,  which  translated  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  am  the  emperor's  bell, 
The  emperor's  praise  I  tell  5 

CARP.    EUROPE — Hi 


238  GERMANY. 

On  holy  guard  I  stand, 
And  for  this  German  land, 
Beseech  that  God  may  please 
To  grant  it  peace  and  ease." 

We  leave  the  church,  to  do  a  little  shopping  before  we 
go  on  our  steamer.  Can  you  guess  what  we  buy  first? 
Think  where  we  are  and  you  will  guess  right.  We  lay  in 
a  good  stock  of  cologne.  It  is  in  Cologne  that  this  well- 
known  perfumery  is  made,  and  we  find  it  exceedingly 
cheap.  It  is  sold  in  many  stores  near  the  cathedral,  and 
we  are  told  there  are  at  least  forty  different  merchants, 
each  of  whom  claims  he  has  the  only  pure  article,  and  he 
will  sprinkle  a  little  on  your  clothes  or  on  your  handker- 
chief to  prove  it. 

We  are  clothed  in  an  atmosphere  of  perfumes  from  such 
attempts  to  induce  us  to  purchase,  as  we  leave  the  stores 
and  walk  down  to  the  Rhine,  where  we  stroll  about  the 
quays  watching  the  shipping.  We  go  back  and  forth  over 
the  great  bridge  of  boats  which  here  crosses  the  river, 
and  watch  the  boys  who  are  fishing,  as  we  wait  for  the 
leaving  time  of  the  steamer.  The  bridge  is  made  of 
anchored  barges  on  which  planks  are  laid.  It  rises  and 
falls  with  the  water,  and  is  so  constructed  that  sections  of 
it  can  be  taken  out  to  let  the  ships  through. 

Soon  our  baggage  arrives.  We  go  on  the  boat  and  see 
it  stowed  away  in  the  cabins,  and  then  take  seats  on  the 
upper  deck,  and  enjoy  the  busy  sights  all  about  us.  There, 
the  whistle  is  blowing,  the  bell  has  rung  for  all  who  are 
not  going  to  get  off,  the  gang  plank  is  pulled  away,  and 
we  are  steaming  off  up  the  Rhine ! 

We  soon  leave  the  city,  and  after  a  time  can  distinguish 
only  the  tall  spires  of  its  cathedral  cutting  the  sky.  How 
fresh  the  air  is  and  how  beautiful  the  scenery !     The  river 


UP  THE   RHINE  TO  SWITZERLAND. 


^39 


has  grown  narrower,  and  we  are  coming  into  a  region  of 
hills.  We  wind  in  and  out,  now  frowned  down  upon  by- 
great  rocks-,  and  now  by  low  mountains  which  seem  high 
because  of  their  steepness. 

What  is  that  odd  building  on  the  top  of  that  hill  at  the 
left  ?  It  is  a  vast  stone  structure  with  a  square  tower  and 
queer  little  windows,  some  of  which  seem  to  have  iron  bars. 
A  part  of  it  has  fallen  down,  and  it  does  not  look  as  though 


any  one  lived  in  it  now.     That 

five  hundred  years  ago  and  was 

baron  or  knight  who, 

with      his      soldiers, 

lived  there,  and  made 

the      poor      people 

round  about  give  him 

support.     There  is  a 

similar  ruin  on  that 

rock  at  the  left,  and 


is  a  castle, 
once    the 


It  was  built 
home    of    a 


—  we  see   ^ 
scores  of  such 
castles." 


as  we  go  on  we  see 
scores  of  such  cas- 
tles. They  were  the 
homes  of  the  barons 
of  the  Middle  Ages, 
many  of  whom  were 
robbers,  who  oppressed  the  people,  and  preyed  upon  the 
merchants  who  traveled  up  and  down  the  Rhine. 

The  history  of  this  region  is  full  of  their  extortions  and 
cruelties,  although  many  of  the  tales  told  are  not  true.  Al- 
most every  hill  along  the  Rhine  has  its  wonderful  story. 
In  some,  they  say,  dragons  lived  and  good  and  bad  fairies 
had  their  homes.  In  the  Drachenfels  (drach'en-felz),  a 
great  rock  on  the  Rhine,  there  was,  it  is  said,  a  dragon  who 
killed  and  ate  people,  being,  I  suppose,  especially  fond  of 


240  GERMANY. 

children.  He  was  finally  conquered  by  Siegfried,  a  German 
hero.  When  the  dragon  died  his  blood  soaked  the  ground, 
and  as  the  region  thereabout  now  produces  excellent 
grapes,  the  people  call  the  wine  made  from  them,  dragon's 
blood. 

We  see  vineyards  everywhere  as  we  steam  on  up  the 
river.  Both  banks  are  lined  with  them.  Every  little 
white  cottage  has  grapevines  about  it,  and  there  are  many 
large  vineyards.  The  hills  are  terraced,  and  the  mountain 
sides  are  made  up  of  green  steps,  each  step  filled  with 
grapevines  tied  to  stakes.  Some  places  are  so  steep  that 
the  earth  is  held  in  with  stone  walls,  and  much  of  it  was 
carried  up  from  below  in  baskets  on  the  backs  of  women 
and  men. 

We  see  men,  women,  and  children  at  work  among  the 
vines.  They  are  hoeing  and  weeding  them.  In  the  autumn 
the  fruit  will  be  ripe,  and  then  all  will  be  picking  grapes 
from  daylight  to  dark,  and  carrying  them  off  to  the  wine 
presses.  The  grapes  are  first  tramped  to  a  pulp  with  the 
feet,  and  then  the  juice  is  squeezed  out.  Much  of  the 
pressing  is  done  after  dark,  and,  as  it  is  thought  disgrace- 
ful to  lie  in  bed  after  sunrise,  the  peasants  have  a  rather 
hard  time  at  grape  harvest. 

Still,  they  seem  to  enjoy  themselves.  We  hear  the  boys 
and  girls  singing  as  they  work.  They  have  parties  and 
dances.  In  the  winter,  in  some  of  the  villages  of  these 
regions,  the  girls  hold  spinning  bees,  when  they  meet 
together  and  spin  yarn  in  the  daytime;  in  the  evening, 
when  the  boys  come,  they  have  a  supper  and  dance. 
They  are  good  people  and  one  of  their  sayings  is  :  "A 
man  who  does  not  go  to  church  is  no  better  than  other 
cattle  ;  "  and  another  is  :  "  He  is  a  bad  man  who  can 
relish  his  sauerkraut  without  a  sermon ! " 


UP  THE   RHINE  TO  SWITZERLAND.  24 1 

Wages  are  very  low  in  the  Rhine  Valley,  and  the  poor 
people  live  plainly.  Many  of  them  eat  only  a  little  gruel 
and  dry  bread  for  breakfast ;  they  have  plenty  of  milk  and 
eggs,  but  little  meat.  They  have  many  potatoes,  making 
all  sorts  of  dishes  of  them,  including  soup,  pancakes,  and 
dumplings. 

The  steamer  stops  some  time  at  Coblenz,  near  which  is 
the  great  rock  fortress  of  Ehrenbreitstein  (a-ren-brlt'stin), 
called  the  Gibraltar  of  the  Rhine.  The  rock  is  four  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  level  of  the  river,  and  the  fortress  upon 
it  can  accommodate  one  hundred  thousand  soldiers,  although 
only  five  thousand  are  stationed  in  it.  It  is  the  chief  of  the 
many  fortresses  of  the  Rhine  Valley,  and  has  been  used  as 
a  military  stronghold  for  about  one  hundred  years. 

We  are  delighted  with  Coblenz.  It  is  a  fine  old  city, 
dating  back  to  the  time  of  the  Romans,  situated  at  the 
joining  of  the  river  Moselle  with  the  Rhine.  It  has  a 
bridge  of  boats,  much  like  that  at  Cologne,  and  many 
quaint  old  buildings.  Among  other  curious  things  is  the 
clock  in  the  old  Merchants'  Hall,  which  has  an  odd 
figure  under  it.  This  is  a  man  with  a  hideous  face,  whose 
goggle  eyes  roll  with  every  move  of  the  pendulum,  and 
whose  great  mouth  opens  when  the  clock  strikes  the  hour. 
It  is  known  as  **  The  man  in  the  customhouse,"  and  it  is 
said  that  when  a  man  from  the  country  meets  one  from 
Coblenz,  he  does  not  ask  him  how  are  all  the  good  people 
of  Coblenz,  but  says  :  "  How  is  the  man  in  the  custom- 
house ? " 

Leaving  Coblenz,  we  steam  on  up  the  Rhine,  winding 
our  way  through  the  hills,  by  many  towns  and  villages,  past 
numerous  castles,  until  we  come  to  a  place  where  the  river 
narrows  and  seethes  and  foams  as  it  dashes  by  the  Lorelei 
rock.     The  rock  has  a  peculiar  echo,  and  there  is  a  story 


242 


GERMANY. 


that  it  was  once  the  home  of  a  wicked  maiden,  who  sat 
there  combing  her  golden  hair  and  singing.  She  was  very 
beautiful,  and  her  song  was  so  sweet  that  the  boatmen  for- 
got to  manage  their  boats  as  they  listened,  and  she  lured 
them  on  and  on  until  they  were  dashed  to  pieces  against 
the  rock. 

The  echo  from  the  rock  is  so  strong  that  it  repeats  many 
times  whatever  we  shout  at  it.  Opposite  it,  but  a  little 
farther  up  stream,  under  a  great  ruined  castle,  is  the  town 
of  Oberwesel  (o'ber-va'zel),  whose  boys  are  said  to  amuse 
themselves  by  crying  out  to  the  echo  rock,  "  Who  is  the 

mayor  of  Oberwe- 
sel," in  such  a  way 
that  only  the  last 
two  syllables  are 
heard,  and  the  cry 
comes  back,  **  Esel, 
Esel,"  a  word  which 
means  donkey  in 
German.  Whether 
the  mayor  feels  in- 
sulted thereby  we 
have  not  time  to 
learn. 

But  what  is  that 
weird-looking  figure 
that   stands  on  the 
hill  in  the  distance  ? 
"It  was  put  up  by  the  Germans."  j^-      jg      ^      gigantic 

woman,  whose  hand  seems  raised  as  though  she  were  com- 
manding the  world.  Perhaps  it  is  really  a  giantess,  and 
these  fairy  stories  of  the  Rhine  are  true  after  alh  Now 
we  have  conie  closer.     It  is  a  giantess  indeed.      It  is  a 


UP  THE  RHINE  TO   SWITZERLAND. 


243 


statue  as  tall  as  a  three-story  house,  standing  on  a  pedestal 
eighty  feet  high.  It  was  put  up  by  the  Germans  to  com- 
memorate their  victories  over  the  French  in  1870.  It  cost 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  and  is  the 
greatest  national  monument  in  Europe. 


Maus  Tower. 


That  little  town  opposite  the  monument  is  Bingen,  "Fair 
Bingen  on  the  Rhine ! "  and  that  tower  on  this  side  of  it 
on  a  rocky  island  in  the  river  is  the  Maus  Tower,  where, 
according  to  one  story,  the  cruel  Bishop  Hatto  was  eaten 
alive  by  rats.     You  may  read  about  it  in  Southey's  poem. 

Bishop  Hatto  was  very  rich  and  his  granaries  were  full 
of  corn,  although  the  people  about  him  were  starving. 
One  day  he  sent  out  word  to  the  peasants  that,  if  they 
would  come  into   his   great  barn,   he  would  give  them 


244  GERMANY. 

enough  food  for  the  winter.  They  came  in  crowds,  men, 
women,  and  children,  thronging  in  with  their  bags,  until 
the  barn  was  packed  with  them. 

"Then  when  he  saw  it  could  hold  no  more, 
Bishop  Hatto  made  fast  the  door, 
And  while  for  mercy  on  Christ  they  call, 
He  set  fire  to  the  barn  and  burnt  them  all. 

"  *  In  faith,  'tis  an  excellent  bonfire,'  quoth  he, 
*  And  the  country  is  greatly  obliged  to  me 
For  ridding  it  in  these  times  forlorn. 
Of  rats  that  only  consume  the  corn.'  " 

The  poem  then  tells  how  the  bishop  returned  home,  ate 
his  supper,  and  went  to  sleep.  When  he  awoke  in  the 
morning,  one  of  his  servants  told  him  that  the  rats  had 
eaten  all  his  corn,  and  another  soon  came  and  said  that  an 
army  of  ten  thousand  rats  was  on  its  way  to  eat  him  up  on 
account  of  his  cruelty  to  the  people.  Thereupon  he  went 
to  this  tower  on  a  rock  in  the  Rhine,  and  locked  himself 
in.  But  the  rats  swam  across  the  river  and  stormed  the 
tower. 

"  In  at  the  windows  and  in  at  the  doors, 
And  through  the  walls  by  thousands  they  poured. 
And  down  through  the  ceiling  and  up  through  the  floor, 
From  the  right  and  the  left,  behind  and  before. 
From  within  and  without,  from  above  and  below. 
And  all  at  once  at  the  bishop  they  go. 

"  They  have  whetted  their  teeth  against  the  stones, 
And  now  they  pick  the  bishop's  bones, 
*        They  gnawed  the  flesh  from  every  limb, 
For  they  were  sent  to  do  justice  on  him." 

This  story  is  interesting,  but  every  one  knows  it  is  not 
true.  The>  tower  was  really  a  watch  tower  erected  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  its  name  comes  from  a  German  word 
which  means  to  steal. 


UP  THE  RHINE  TO  SWITZERLAND. 


245 


A  little  later  on  we  reach  Mainz,  opposite  the  point 
where  the  Main  flows  into  the  Rhine.  Here  we  leave  the 
boat  and  take  a  walk  through  the  town.  We  visit  the 
ruins  of  a  Roman  tower,  supposed  to  have  been  erected 
more  than  nineteen  hundred  years  ago.  We  go  to  the 
house  where  Gutenberg,  the  first  printer,  was  born,  and 
then  take  the  railroad  for  Frankfurt  near  by. 


Jewish  Quarter,  Frankfurt. 

Here  we  stroll  along  the  river  Main,  watching  the  great 
rafts  of  timber  which  are  floating  down  to  the  city.  We 
walk  on  the  Ziel,  the  chief  street,  and  look  at  the  shops. 
We  visit  the  great  red  sandstone  cathedral,  and  then  go  to 
the  stock  exchange,  for  Frankfurt  is  one  of  the  chief  busi- 
ness cities  of  Germany.  It  was  for  years  one  of  the  richest 
cities  of  Europe,  and  its  bankers  have  often  loaned  money 
to  kings. 


246 


GERMANY. 


One  of  the  dirtiest  parts  of  the  town  is  the  Jewish  quar- 
ter, where,  not  far  from  the  stores  of  old  clothes  merchants, 
we  are  shown  the  house  of  the  first  of  the  Rothschilds, 
who  are  now  one  of  the  richest  families  of  the  world. 
They  have  their  great  banking  houses  in  London,  Paris, 
and  Vienna,  and  control  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars. 


Heidelberg  Castle. 

We  go  to  see  the  Gutenberg  monument  in  Horse  Mar- 
ket Square,  and  then  take  a  train  for  Strassburg,  visiting 
the  cities  of  Mannheim  and  Heidelberg  on  the  way. 
Mannheim  is  a  manufacturing  center  situated  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Neckar,  and 
Heidelberg,  only  a  few  miles  off,  is  the  seat  of  a  famous 
university,  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  places  in  Ger- 
many. 


UP  THE   RHINE  TO   SWITZERLAND.  247 

It  lies  on  the  Neckar,  with  a  great  castle  on  the  hills 
just  above  it.  We  visit  the  castle,  climbing  about  its  ivy- 
clad  ruins.  We  go  down  into  the  dungeon  where  the 
prisoners  were  kept  in  times  past,  and  in  the  cellar  are 
shown  what  is  perhaps  the  biggest  barrel  ever  made.  It 
is  known  as  the  Heidelberg  tun,  and  it  will  hold  eight 
hundred  hogsheads,  or  more  than  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
thousand  bottles  of  wine.  It  has  been  filled  only  three 
times  in  one  hundred  years. 

We  spend  some  time  strolling  about  Heidelberg.  How 
queer  the  students  look,  and  how  many  of  them  have 
scars  and  strips  of  court-plaster  on  their  faces.  We  are 
told  the  plaster  is  to  cure  the  cuts  received  in  the  duels 
which  they  fight  with  one  another,  using  sharp  two-edged 
swords  and  stopping  only  when  the  first  blood  is  drawn. 
A  student  is  very  proud  of  his  scars,  and  he  walks  like  a 
king  if  he  has  two  or  three  cuts  covered  with  plaster. 
The  university  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  largest  in  Ger- 
many. 

A  short  ride  on  the  railroad  brings  us  back  to  the  Rhine, 
and  we  are  soon  at  Strassburg,  another  important  center 
of  commerce  and  trade.  It  lies  two  miles  from  the  Rhine, 
with  which  it  is  connected  by  canals.  Strassburg  was 
founded  by  the  Romans,  and  in  the  middle  ages  was  one 
of  the  most  prosperous  of  the  free  German  cities.  The 
French  obtained  possession  of  it  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, but  in  the  war  of  1870  the  Germans  recaptured  it, 
and  it  is  now  one  of  the  military  centers  of  their  empire. 

Strassburg  is  especially  noted  for  its  cathedral  and  the 
great  clock  within  it.  This  clock  is  a  wonder  of  mechanical 
ingenuity.  Every  fifteen  minutes  a  figure  of  an  angel  comes 
out  of  it  and  strikes  the  quarter  with  a  bell,  while  every 
hour  is  struck  by  a  skeleton  which  appears  higher  up.    Be- 


248 


GERMANY. 


side  the  angel  is  a  figure  which  turns  the  sand  glass  every 
hour,  and  about  the  skelejton  are  four  other  figures  repre- 
senting boyhood,  youth,  manhood,  and  old  age.  In  the 
gallery  below  these  stands  a  figure  by  which  you  can 
tell  the  day  of  the  week,  for  a  different  one  appears  every 
day.  The  most  interesting  scene,  however,  is  at  noon,  the 
time  of  our  visit,  when  figures  representing  the  twelve 
apostles  come  out  above  the  other  figures,  and  march 
around  an  image  of  the  Savior,  while  a  cock  on  the  pin- 
nacle of  a  side  tower  flaps  its  wings,  stretches  its  neck,  and 

crows  so  loudly  that 
the  noise  penetrates 
every  portion  of  the 
great  building. 

We  leave  Strass- 
burg  by  railroad, 
and  ride  along  the 
banks  of  the  river 
to  Basel  in  Switzer- 
land, where  we  end 
our  Rhine  journey. 
The  river  has  still 
much  shipping,  not- 
withstanding a  vast 
traffic  of  passen- 
gers and  freight 
is  carried  by  rail. 
We  are  greatly  im- 
pressed with  the 
Cathedral,  Strassburg.  .  ^  r    ^u 

importance    of    the 

Rhine  as  a  trade  route,  and  have  learned  that  it  is  one 
of  the  most  useful  as  well  as  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
commercial  highways  of  Europe. 


7     Longitude  Eaat     8       from        Grecnwiih    9 


XXVI.  SWITZERLAND  — THE  ALPS. 

PUT  on  your  rough  clothes  this  morning,  and  leave 
your  heavy  baggage  behind.  We  are  about  to  ex- 
plore some  of  the  mountainous  parts  of  Switzerland, 
and  much  of  our  travel  must  be  upon  foot.  Each  must 
carry  his  own  knapsack,  and  the  sensible  ones  will  take 
just  as  little  as  possible.  A  waterproof,  an  extra  suit  of 
underclothing,  some  handkerchiefs  and  woolen  stockings, 
together  with  the  necessary  articles  of  everyday  toilet,  will 
be  quite  enough.  We  shall  each  take  an  alpenstock,  a 
strong  pole  with  a  sharp  steel  point  on  its  end  to  aid  us  in 
cHmbing  and  in  walking  over  the  ice,  and  also  smoked 
glasses  to  shield  our  eyes  from  the  glare  of  the  snow. 
Our  guides  will  bring  along  ropes  to  tie  us  to  them  while 
passing  over  the  dangerous  places,  and  ice  axes  to  cut 
steps  into  the  walls  of  the  glaciers  and  up  the  ice  banks  of 
the  mountains. 


249 


250 


SWITZERLAND. 


Switzerland  is  the  most  mountainous  country  of  Europe. 
It  contains  the  highest  ranges  of  the  Alps.  It  has 
several  peaks  almost  three  miles  in  height,  and  many  which 
are  clad  with  perpetual  snow.  It  has  hundreds  of  great 
glaciers  or  ice  streams,  which  fill  the  mountain  valleys  and 
extend  down  into  the  gieen  pastures  and  forests  below. 


' '  Each  must 


>vn  knapsack." 


It  is  not  a  large  country.  Altogether  it  has  only  about 
twice  as  much  land  as  Massachusetts,  and  one  third  of  it 
is.  ice  and  bare  rocks.  Another  third  is  covered  with 
forest,  but  here  and  there  in  the  woods,  in  the  valleys,  and 
even  high  up  in  the  mountains,  there  are  good  pastures. 
There  are  many  small  farms  and  rich  vineyards,  and  in  all 
about  one  ninth  of  the  whole  can  be  cultivated. 

This  is  not  a  great  deal,  but  nevertheless  Switzerland 
is  one  of  the  most  important  countries  of  Europe.     The 


THE  ALPS.  251 

snow-clad  mountains  condense  into  rain  the  moisture  of 
the  winds  which  roar  about  them,  and  thus  become  the 
cradles  of  some  of  the  greatest  of  the  European  rivers. 
Upon  one  slope  of  Saint  Gothard  the  Rhine  has  its  begin- 
ning in  a  little  brook  so  narrow  that  we  leap  over  it  with 
our  alpenstocks,  and  a  few  miles  to  the  west  on  the  same 
mountain,  so  near  that  we  walk  from  one  place  to  the 
other,  is  the  great  glacier  out  of  which  pours  the  Rhone. 
To  the  east  are  the  first  springs  of  the  Danube,  which 
forms  a  vast  trade  route  through  Southern  Europe  to  the 
Black  Sea ;  and  down  the  other  side  of  the  mountains 
flows  the  Ticino,  the  chief  feeder  of  the  Po,  the  principal 
river  of  Italy.  These  streams  and  others  from  the  Alps 
water  a  vast  territory;  they  have  much  to  do  in  making 
Europe  the  richest  of  the  continents,  and  they  are  entirely 
dependent  on  the  mountains  we  are  climbing. 

Could  we  rise  high  above  Switzerland  in  a  balloon  and 
look  down  upon  it,  we  should  see  that  the  Central  Alps 
and  the  Jura  with  some  highlands  between  them  comprise 
the  whole  country.  We  should  see  that  the  Alps  rise 
from  the  plateau,  in  several  ranges ;  and  that  they  have 
many  cross  valleys ;  but  that  Saint  Gothard  at  the  center 
is  the  chief  dividing  mass,  with  the  great  trench  or  valley 
of  the  Rhine  running  down  one  side  of  it  to  the  north- 
east and  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  down  the  other  to 
the  southwest.  As  our  balloon  sank  down  and  hovered 
over  the  snow  masses,  we  should  see  that  the  mountains 
are  cut  up  into  all  sorts  of  strange  shapes.  There  are 
deep  gorges  with  rocky  walls  half  covered  with  green, 
beautiful  lakes  surrounded  by  snowy  peaks  which  mirror 
themselves  in  the  waters ;  there  are  silvery  cascades, 
emerald  meadows,  and  level  uplands  spotted  with  flowers, 
and  indeed  so  much  beautiful  scenery  that  people  come 


252  SWITZERLAND. 

from  all  over  the  world  to  enjoy. it  and  the  life-giving  air 
of  the  mountains.  So  many  thousand  tourists  come  that 
Switzerland  is  called  the  playground  of  Europe.  There 
are  hotels  everywhere,  and  even  on  the  tops  of  Mount 
Rigi,  and  several  others  of  the  highest  Alps,  we  can  find 
comfortable  quar|:ers. 

The  tourists  spend  so  many  millions  of  dollars  in  Switzer- 
land every  year  that  the  people  have  made  good  roads  to 
all  the  principal  places  and  have  built  many  hotels.  They 
have  constructed  roads  over  the  passes,  and  long  tunnels 
through  Mount  Saint  Gothard  and  others  of  the  Alps,  to 
carry  people  and  merchandise  by  railroad  to  and  from  Italy. 
These  tunnels  and  their  railroads  bring  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  North  Sea  within  several  days  of  each  other, 
whereas  before  they  were  constructed  the  most  of  the 
goods  were  carried  about  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar, 
or  to  Marseilles  and  across  France  by  rail. 

A  cog  railroad  like  those  we  have  at  Mount  Washington 
and  Pike's  Peak  was  built  up  Mount  Rigi  many  years  ago, 
that  travelers  might  see  the  view.  This  was  so  well 
patronized  that  similar  roads  have  since  been  built  to  the 
tops  of  other  peaks,  so  that  Mark  Twain  has  said  there  is 
now  scarcely  a  great  Alp  that  has  not  a  railroad  or  ladder 
up  its  back  Hke  a  pair  of  suspenders. 

This  is,  of  course,  an  exaggeration.  There  are  many 
conveniences  for  travelers ;  but  you  cannot  cross  glaciers 
by  railroad,  and  the  most  interesting  places  must  be  visited 
on  foot.  We  take  the  railroad  from  Basel  over  the  high 
plains  to  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  and  then  tramp  on  our  way 
up  one  mountain  after  another,  through  some  of  the 
grandest  scenery  of  the  world. 

The  air  grows  colder  as  we  go  up.  We  leave  the  culti- 
vated farms  and  vineyards,  climbing  higher  and  higher. 


THE  ALPS. 


253 


now  passing  through  forests  of  beeches,  chestnuts,  and 
wahiuts ;  now  walking  along  a  mountain  side  overlooking 
a  beautiful  valley  spotted  with  the  cottages  of  the  farm- 
ers; and  now  reaching  the  higher  lands  where  there  are 


Railroad  up  Mount  Rigi. 

only  forests  of  fir  and  pine  trees,  and  pastures  with  cows, 
sheep,  and  goats  feeding  upon  them.  Higher  still  the 
trees  disappear,  and  shrubs  and  strange  flowers  are  alone 
to  be  seen.  There  are  many  bushes,  lovely  Alpine  roses, 
and  creeping  azaleas.  The  grass  is  shorter  than  below, 
but  it  smells  so  sweet  that  we  do  not  wonder  the  cattle 
and  sheep  greedily  eat  it.  There  are  many  small  but  bril- 
liant flowers  among  the  rocks ;  deep  blue,  Hght  pink,  and 
delicate  purple  blossoms  are  everywhere  growing,  even  on 
'the  snow  line,  which  we  reach  at  eight  or  nine  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea. 


254  SWITZERLAND. 

When  we  started  we  were  in  midsummer.  Here  we 
seem  to  be  in  midwinter,  save  that  the  sun  is  hot  at  mid- 
day, and  we  perspire  as  we  climb.  There  is  snow  all 
around  us.  It  banks  the  paths,  it  covers  the  rocks,  and 
in  the  higher  levels  it  is  deep  in  the  hollows.  We  see  it 
melting  under  our  feet  only  to  freeze  again  at  night,  and 
turn  the  pathway  to  ice. 

The  air  is  cold  when  the  sun  sets.  It  is  damp  where 
the  wind  blows  over  the  snow.  We  frequently  see  white 
clouds  float  down  from  above  over  our  pathway  and  wrap 
us  in  mist.  Now  they  thicken,  and  we  are  walking  in  a 
light  rain ;  now  the  sun  sends  his  rays  through  them,  they 
disappear,  and  we  are  warm  again. 

Near  the  tops  of  the  mountains  we  travel  slowly.  The 
air  is  so  thin  that  we  sometimes  gasp  for  breath.  Our 
feet  grow  heavy  and  our  hearts  beat  with  the  exertion. 
Much  of  the  way  is  over  dangerous  paths  where  we  move 
along  in  single  file,  each  bound  in  one  of  the  loops  of 
a  long  rope  which  is  tied  to  the  guide;  so  that  if  one 
should  slip,  the  others  would  keep  him  frofn  dashing  to 
pieces  over  the  dizzy  precipices  along  which  we  are 
crawling.  In  the  same  way  we  cross  the  ice  wastes 
where  there  are  cracks  hundreds  of  feet  deep,  and  where 
we  pull  ourselves  along  through  the  snows. 

The  views  are  indescribable.  At  the  foot  of  the 
mountains  we  see  silvery  lakes  in  nests  of  green  hills, 
walled  with  these  snowy  peaks,  which  mirror  themselves 
in  their  waters.  In  the  gorges,  roofed  by  the  blue  sky, 
rocks,  half  moss-covered  and  scarred  by  glaciers,  rise  pre- 
cipitously for  a  thousand  feet,  and  at  their  feet  roar  and 
foam  rivers  of  milk-white  glacier  water  as  cold  as  the  icy 
caves  in  which  they  are  born. 

From  the  peaks  we  see  snowy  mountains,  one  climbing 


THE  ALPS. 


255 


over  the  other  until  they  are  lost  in  the  blue  sky  of  the 
horizon.  Below  is  the  jumbled  mass  of  green  forest  and 
gray  rock,  and,  beyond  the  snow  line,  the  glassy  lakes  and 
silvery  streams  reflecting  the  sun  and  the  green  pastures, 
with  the  dots  and  spots  upon  them  marking  the  cattle  and 
the  homes  of  the  peasants,  while  still  far  below,  with  our 
glasses,  we  can  see  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  plains. 


"  Much  of  the  way  is  over  dangerous  paths." 

Among  our  most  interesting  journeys  are  those  over 
the  glaciers,  those  great  snow  rivers  of  the  Alps  which 
were  frozen  ages  ago  and  which  are  freezing  still.  They 
are  vast  masses  of  ice  and  snow,  filling  the  gorges  high  up 
in  the  mountains ;  and  slowly,  slowly  moving  down  into 
the  valleys,  writing  their  diaries  upon  the  rocks  and  earth 
through  which  they  are  plowing  their  way.  Switzerland  has 
hundreds  of  these  mighty  frozen  cataracts  or  ice  rivers. 

CARP.   EUROPE — 16 


256  SWITZERLAND. 

The  best  place  to  see  them  is  in  the  Valley  of  Chamouni 
(sha-moo-ne'),  high  up  on  the  side  of  Mont  Blanc.  The 
summit  of  this  mountain  is  just  over  the  border  in  France, 
but  so  much  of  its  slope  is  in  Switzerland  that  many  people 
have  looked  upon  it  as  a  Swiss  mountain.  It  is,  with  the 
exception  of  certain  peaks  of  the  Caucasus,  the  highest 
mountain  in  Europe,  its  snow-clad  peak  rising  15,781  feet 
above  the  sea,  and  high  above  the  Valley  of  Chamouni, 
into  which  sixty-four  of  its  great  glaciers  drain. 

We  walk  across  the  Tete  Noire  (tat  nwar)  Pass  to 
Chamouni,  where  we  stay  over  night  at  one  of  the  hotels 
to  get  an  early  start  for  the  glaciers.  The  sun  is  just 
rising  when  we  come  to  the  great  walls  of  ice  beyond  the 
terminal  moraines.  Our  guides  cut  steps  into  the  ice, 
and  climbing  up,  help  us  along  by  the  ropes  they  have 
fastened  about  their  waists.  It  is  hard  work,  our  hands 
are  sore  with  the  pulling  and  cold  where  we  have  seized 
the  ice  to  hold  on,  but  at  last  we  reach  the  top  and  stand 
on  the  glacier.  We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  a  wide,  turbu- 
lent ice  river.  The  waves  are  piled  up  in  all  sorts  of 
shapes,  and  the  surface  looks  as  though  the  stream  had 
been  rolling  and  tossing  like  the  sea  in  a  storm,  when  by 
the  wand  of  Jack  Frost  it  was  changed  into  ice. 

The  surface  of  the  glacier  is  rough  with  little  peaks 
here  and  there.  It  has  many  great  cracks  or  crevasses, 
some  of  which  are  several  hundred  feet  deep.  We  lean 
over  one  and  hear  the  water  rolling  along  away  down 
there  under  the  great  mass  of  ice.  There  are  streams  of 
ice  water  flowing  into  the  cracks  and  crossing  the  glacier 
this  way  and  that.  Here  is  a  pool  and  there  is  a  great 
crevasse  half  filled  with  melted  snow.  We  get  down 
on  our  knees,  and  take  a  drink  of  ice  water  from  the 
pool,  and  then  start  over  the  glacier.     We  drive  the  steel 


THE  ALPS. 


257 


points  of  our  alpenstocks  into  the  snowy  white  surface 
to  steady  ourselves,  although  we  are  tied  with  ropes  to 
one  another  and  to  the  guide.  In  single  file  we  thus  make 
our  way  up  the  frozen  river,  now  jumping  a  crevasse, 
now  winding  about  to  avoid  the  greater  ice  mounds,  and 
now  skirting  the  banks  or  moraines,  the  masses  of  boul- 


Mer  de  Glace. 

ders  and  clay  which  the  glacier  has  forced  up  and  is  carry- 
ing along  as  it  moves  on  its  way. 

And  is  this  glacier  moving  ?  Let  us  stop  and  watch  it. 
We  hear  a  great  crack  now  and  then,  and  sometimes  a 
stone  rolls  down  from  the  mountains  upon  it ;  but  we  see 
no  signs  of  motion  in  the  great  icy  river  under  our  feet. 
And  still  it  is  moving  now  as  it  has  been  moving  for  ages. 
It  is  one  of  the  oldest  travelers  of  history.     It  began  its 


258 


SWITZERLAND. 


journey  centuries  ago,  and  it  will  probably  go  on  for  ages 
to  come.  It  is  traveling  at  the  rate  of  two  feet  per  day,  or 
about  an  inch  every  hour. 

Be  careful  how  you  jump  across  that  crevasse  !     If  you 
should  slip  you  might  be  lost  in  the  ice,  and  by  the  rope  to 


"We  travel  under  the  Saint  Gothard  Pass." 

which  we  are  tied  pull  us  all  down  to  destruction,  as  was 
the  case  of  eight  travelers  on  one  of  these  Mont  Blanc 
glaciers  in  1820.  They  were  walking  along  just  as  we 
are,  when  they  slipped  and  were  buried  two  hundred  feet 
deep  in  the  Grande  Crevasse.  The  snow  covered  their 
remains,  and  it  was  not  until  about  forty  years  later  that 


THE  ALPS. 


259 


Lake  Como. 


I 


their  frozen  bodies  began  to  appear  at  the  end  of  the 
glacier.  In  that  time  they  had  traveled  about  five  miles, 
or  six  hundred  and  eighty  feet  per  year,  borne  along  in 
the  glacier. 

After  exploring  the  Mer  de  Glace  (mar  d'  glas),  or  Sea 
of  Ice,  and  other  glaciers  about  Chamouni,  we  climb 
through  the  snows  to  the  top  of  Mont  Blanc,  and  later 
on  go  up  the  Rigi  and  other  mountains  by  cog  railroads. 
We  travel  under  the  Saint  Gothard  Pass  through  its  famous 
tunnel  ten  miles  long  to  the  south  side  of  the  Alps ;  and 
after  visiting  the  Lakes  of  Como  and  Maggiore  (mad-jo' ra) 
come  back  over  the  Simplon  (saN-pl5N')  Pass  in  a  great 
coach  drawn  by  six  horses,  three  abreast.  We  have  seats 
on  the  roof  so  high  up  that  we  need  a  ladder  to  reach 
them.  Each  of  the  horses  has  a  necklace  of  bells  which 
jingle  merrily  as  we  gallop  along.     The  coachman  blows  a 


26o  SWITZERLAND. 

horn  now  and  then,  and  the  people  come  out  and  stare  at 
us  as  we  dash  through  the  villages  and  down  the  steep  hills. 
We  spend  one  night  at  the  Hospice,  a  large  stone  house 
on  the  top  of  St.  Bernard,  where  we  are  entertained  by  the 
monks.  They  are  kind-faced,  shaven-headed  men,  in  cowls 
and  long  gowns,  who  live  here  high  up  in  the  Alps  all  the 
year  round  to  succor  travelers  who  may  be  lost  in  the  storm. 
They  show  us  the  huge  red  and  white  St.  Bernard  dogs, 
which  are  trained  to  hunt  for  persons  who  may,  perhaps, 
have  been  lost  in  the  snow,  or  knocked  senseless  by  an 
avalanche,  or  by  a  stone  falling  down  from  the  mountains. 
Every  day  during  the  winter  these  dogs  are  sent  out,  each 
carrying  some  food  and  a  small  bottle  of  brandy  about  its 
neck.  When  they  find  a  lost  traveler  who  is  unconscious, 
they  endeavor  to  arouse  him  ;  they  sit  down  beside  him  and 
howl  for  their  masters,  or  perhaps  run  back  to  the  Hospice 
and  lead  them  to  the  spot. 

XXVn.  THE  SWISS  PEOPLE  AND  HOW  THEY 
ARE  GOVERNED. 

WHAT  a  busy  country  Switzerland  is !  It  is  the 
playground  of  Europe,  but  it  is  the  workshop  of 
the  Swiss.  Every  one  of  the  natives  seems  to  be  busy. 
The  men  are  doing  all  sorts  of  work,  and  the  women  knit 
and  make  lace  even  while  they  are  resting  from  their  other 
labors.  All  are  well  dressed  according  to  their  station. 
There  are  no  beggars,  and  no  one  seems  to  be  suffering. 
The  cities  are  clean  and  well  kept  The  houses  have 
gardens  about  them  in  which  are  beautiful  roses  and  other 
flowers ;  the  stores  are  filled  with  fine  goods,  and  all  the 
surroundings  are  those  of  thrift  and  good  living.     The 


THE  SWISS  PEOPLE. 


261 


I 


Swiss,  although  there  are  more  than  three  millions  of  them 
in  their  little  mountainous  country,  have  become  the  most 
prosperous  people  of  Europe.  They  all  make  a  good  liv- 
ing, and  many  grow  wealthy. 

How  do  they  do  it.?  In  all  sorts  of  ways.  They  are 
skilled  in  manufacturing  and  trading.  Their  little  country 
is  surrounded  by  rich  nations,  and  they  have  commerce  with 
all  of  them,  export- 
ing many  million  dolr 
lars'  worth  of  goods 
every  year.  They 
are  one  of  the  chief 
of  the  manufactur- 
ing nations.  They 
not  only  work  them- 
selves, but  make  their 
mountains  work  for 
them,  using  the  water 
power  furnished  by 
the  turbulent  streams 
to  run  thousands  of 
factories  and  mills  of 
all  kinds. 

About  Zurich,  on 
a  beautiful  lake,  cot- 
tons, woolens,  and  silks  are  produced;  at  Basel,  on  the 
Rhine,  ribbons  as  beautiful  as  those  we  saw  made  in 
France  are  woven  by  hand,  and  at  St.  Gall  trimmings,  em- 
broideries, and  laces  of  all  kinds  are  manufactured  for 
export  to  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

If  you  want  a  fine  music  box  you  can  buy  wonderful 
ones  at  Geneva,  and  as  for  watches,  they  are  sold  at  such 
low  prices  that  we  are  tempted  to  carry  several  home  to 


Making  Lace. 


262  SWITZERLAND. 

our  friends.  In  many  towns  in  the  Jura  Mountains,  and 
about  Lake  Geneva,  nearly  every  one  seems  busy  making 
watches  and  clocks.  Some  are  filing  out  the  cog  wheels, 
others  adjusting  the  springs  or  polishing  the  cases.  Swiss 
watches  are  sold  all  over  the  world,  and  many  are  sent  to 
our  country. 

It  is  really  wonderful,  the  different  things  they  do  in 
the  villages.  Each  town  has  its  own  specialty.  In  some 
places  the  people  are  all  making  leather  goods,  in  others 
they  are  carving  things  out  of  wood,  and  in  others  turning 
out  manufactures  of  metal  by  machinery  and  hand.  In 
one  district  on  the  south  side  of  the  Alps  the  people  breed 
silkworms,  and  in  the  canton  of  Orisons  they  raise  snails 
for  sale.  In  some  mountain  villages  the  boys  learn  special 
trades,  and  go  to  other  parts  of  Europe  to  practice  them. 
One  town  sends  out  skillful  masons  and  glaziers,  another 
is  noted  for  its  fine  pastry  cooks,  another  for  its  chimney 
sweeps,  while  others  supply  waiters  for  the  big  hotels  all 
over  Europe. 

We  see  the  people  farming  everywhere  as  we  travel 
through  Switzerland.  Their  country  is  so  small  that  they 
have  to  import  much  of  their  food,  but  they  raise  all  they 
can.  Nearly  every  family  owns  some  land,  and  there  are 
three  hundred  thousand  peasant  farmers.  We  find  patches 
of  cabbages  and  potatoes,  little  hay  fields  and  pastures  almost 
to  the  line  of  perpetual  snow,  and  every  bit  of  the  plains 
and  valleys  is  given  up  to  orchards  and  vineyards,  grain 
fields  and  hay  fields,  and  gardens  raising  all  sorts  of 
vegetables. 

We  are  surprised  at  the  smallness  of  the  farms  in  the 
mountains.  Some  of  the  fields  are  no  bigger  than  a  bed 
quilt,  and  others  are  so  steep  and  rocky  that  they  cannot 
be  plowed,  but  are  dug  up  with  spades  and  hoes.    The 


THE  SWISS  PEOPLE. 


263 


"They  carry  loads  on  their  backs." 

grass  must  be  cut  down  with  sickles  or  scythes,  and  carried 
to  the  barns  on  pitchforks  or  in  blankets  or  baskets  on 
the  backs  of  women  and  men. 

We  see  women  and  children  everywhere  working.  They 
tend  the  cows  in  the  mountains,  knitting  as  they  keep  them 
from  straying.  They  carry  loads  on  their  backs  over  the 
roads,  and  on  some  of  the  farms  they  really  seem  to  be 
very  beasts  of  burden.  We  see  them  tottering  along  with 
heavy  baskets  on  their  backs,  held  there  by  straps  like 
knapsacks.  There  is  a  family  preparing  a  hillside  for 
planting!  The  field  is  so  steep  we  use  our  alpenstocks 
to  climb  it,  and  yet  the  women  and  children  are  walking 


264 


SWITZERLAND. 


up  with  heavy  loads  on  their  backs.  They  are  carrying 
up  the  manure  from  that  stable  on  the  other  end  of  the 
road.  The  father  of  the  family  is  loading  the  stuff  with 
a  fork  into  baskets  on  the  backs  of  the  women  and 
children.     That  old  woman  who  stands  there  may  be  the 


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Swiss  Vineyard. 


grandmother,  for  her  hair  is  gray,  and  her  face  is  covered 
with  wrinkles.  She  is  leaning  down,  for  her  basket  is  full ; 
now  she  totters  up  the  hill,  and  bending  down,  pitches  her 
load  out  on  the  ground  over  her  head.  Now  a  girl  of 
eight  and  a  boy  of  ten,  each  carrying  a  similar  basket, 
have  taken  their  places  at  the  pile,  and  the  man  is  filling 


THE  SWISS  PEOPLE. 


265 


the  baskets,  while  a  woman,  who  may  be  their  mother, 
awaits  her  turn  at  the  work.  A  little  farther  on  we  see 
some  girls  picking  up  stones,  and  near  them  two  women 
are  spading  the  sod.  Just  across  the  road  a  man  and  a 
woman  are  planting  a  field,  and  still  farther  down  an  ox 
cart  driven  by  a  boy  is  climbing  the  hill. 


House  in  the  Highlands. 

Here  in  the  mountains  are  the  chief  pasture  lands  of 
Switzerland.  The  country  is  noted  for  its  excellent  butter 
and  cheese,  which  are  shipped  everywhere.  The  grass  is 
rich,  and  it  has  such  a  sweet  smell  that  the  milk  and  butter 
are  both  fragrant  and  delicious.  We  pass  many  dairies, 
and  we  hear  the  tinkle,  tinkle,  tinkle  of  the  bells  on  the 
necks  of  the  cows. 

In  many  villages  the  pasture  lands  are  held  in  common, 


266  SWITZERLAND. 

and  the  cows  are  sent  out  to  them  under  the  care  of  the 
village  herdsman.  He  drives  them  to  the  highlands  in 
the  spring,  going  higher  and  higher  as  the  snow  melts,  and 
coming  back  in  the  autumn  as  the  snow  falls.  He  has  a 
house,  and  sometimes  a  dairy,  away  up  in  the  mountains, 
where,  with  his  assistants,  he  makes  butter  and  cheese, 
sending  some  from  time  to  time  to  the  village.  In  the 
farms  farther  down  the  cheese  is  often  made  in  the  living 
room  of  the  family,  and  the  hayloft  and  stables  are  often  a 
part  of  the  chalet,  or  cottage,  the  cows  living  under  the 
same  roof  with  the  people. 

There  are  lumber  camps  and  sawmills  along  the  moun- 
tain streams,  and  huts  and  cottages  are  to  be  seen  every- 
where. In  the  highlands  many  of  the  houses  are  of  only 
one  story,  with  low,  wide,  overhanging  roofs,  on  which  flat 
stones  have  been  laid  to  keep  the  fierce  winds  from  tearing 
them,  off.  Almost  all  the  houses  are  of  wood,  but  they 
are  comfortable,  and  many  are  very  picturesque;  they 
have  roses  and  other  flowers  about  them,  and  are  often 
covered  with  vines. 

The  Swiss  of  the  lower  lands,  and  especially  of  the  cities, 
dress  much  like  the  people  of  other  parts  of  Europe ;  but 
in  the  mountains  there  are  many  strange  costumes.  The 
women  wear  short  skirts,  with  their  arms  bare  to  the  elbows. 
Their  best  gowns  have  velvet  vests  decorated  with  rows  of 
big  silver  buttons  and  silver  chains.  They  have  curious 
headdresses  of  cotton  and  lace,  which  vary  in  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country.  The  men  often  wear  hats 
with  feathers  in  them  and  velveteen  suits  with  great  silver 
buttons. 

The  Swiss  are  a  very  strong  people.  They  are  so  noted 
for  their  powers  of  endurance  and  bravery  that  in  the  past 
the  other  nations  were  glad  to  hire  them  as  soldiers.     At 


THE   SWISS  PEOPLE. 


267 


Lucerne  there  is  a  huge  lion  carved  out  of  the  side  of  a 
rock  to  commemorate  the  bravery  of  the  Swiss  Guard  in 
defending  the  king  of  France  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution. 
The  brave  Swiss  died  at  their  posts  rather  than  admit  the 


Lucerne. 

mob,  and  this  monument  has  been  erected  at  their  native 
place  in  praise  of  their  devotion  to  duty.  In  recent  years 
the  custom  of  hiring  men  out  to  fight  has  passed  away, 
for  the  Swiss  prefer  to  remain  among  their  own  mountains 
in  the  land  they  so  dearly  love.  They  pride  themselves 
on  their  freedom,  and  look  upon  their  country  as  the  birth- 
place of  liberty. 

Switzerland  is  the  oldest  of  the  republics,  now  in  exist- 
ence. Its  people  governed  themselves  long  before  America 
was  discovered,  and  many  stories  are  told  of  their  inde- 


268  SWITZERLAND. 

pendence  and  pride.  We  have  all  heard  of  William  Tell ; 
how  he  refused  to  bow  down  before  the  cap  of  Gessler, 
the  Austrian  governor,  and  how,  as  a  punishment,  he  was 
required  to  shoot  the  apple  off  his  little  son's  head  in  the 
market  place  of  Altorf  near  Lucerne.  He  did  shoot  at 
the  apple  and  hit  it ;  but  he  had  also  another  arrow,  with 
which  he  expected  to  shoot  Gessler,  if  he  had  wounded  his 
son.  There  are  people  who  will  tell  you  this  story  is  not 
true;  but  the  Swiss,  who  should  know,  evidently  believe 
it,  and  in  Lucerne  celebrations  in  honor  of  Tell  are  held 
every  year. 

The  government  of  the  Swiss  republic .  is  somewhat 
different  from  ours.  The  little  country  is  divided  up  into 
twenty-two  cantons  or  districts,  each  of  which  has  its  own 
local  government,  and  elects  members  to  a  National  Con- 
gress which  sits  at  the  capital,  the  city  of  Bern.  These 
little .  cantons  correspond  to  our  states ;  but  they  are 
governed  differently,  and  some  of  them  have  curious 
ways  of  making  their  laws.  In  certain  cantons,  the  men 
all  meet  together  at  a  fixed  time  in  a  large  field,  and  there, 
out  on  the  grass,  they  elect  their  officers,  and  make  the 
laws.  In  the  larger  cantons,  they  choose  men  to  make 
their  laws  for  them,  but  even  there  important  things  must 
be  voted  on  by  the  people  themselves. 

At  Bern  we  learn  all  about  the  National  Congress, 
which  has  to  do  with  matters  which  concern  the  whole 
country,  having  much  the  same  powers  as  our  Congress. 
It  even  elects  the  president  and  vice  president,  and  makes 
all  treaties  and  provisions  for  the  defense  of  the  nation. 

Switzerland  has  fortifications  at  the  passes  over  the  Alps, 
and  also  in  some  other  places.  According  to  law  a  stand- 
ing army  cannot  be  maintained  within  the  country ;  but 
every  Swiss  serves  as  a  soldier  for  a  part  of  his  life,  and 


THE  SWISS  PEOPLE.  269 

every  public  school  has  its  military  drills,  in  which  the 
boys,  beginning  at  eight  years  of  age,  are  taught  to  bear 
arms.  So  if  the  nation  should  be  attacked,  it  could  put 
half  a  million  men  at  once  in  the  field. 

The  Congress  has  charge  of  the  railroads,  telegraphs, 
and  telephones,  with  which  the  country  is  well  supplied. 
The  Swiss  republic  keeps  up  a  good  postal  system.  It  has 
such  excellent  schools,  and  so  many  universities,  that  its 
people  are  amongst  the  best  educated,  and  most  intelligent 
of  Europe.  Nearly  every  one  speaks  two  or  more  lan- 
guages, for  the  nation  has  no  language  especially  its  own. 
In  most  of  the  cantons  of  northern  and  western  Switzer- 
land they  speak  German,  in  the  districts  nearest  France 
they  speak  French,  and  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Alps 
many  speak  Italian.  There  are  so  many  American  and 
English  travelers  that  English  is  taught  in  the  schools; 
and  we  find  people  everywhere  with  whom  we  can  talk. 

We  are  delighted  with  the  cities  of  Switzerland.  There 
are  not  many  of  them,  for  most  of  the  people  live  in  small 
towns  and  villages.  Zurich,  about  the  size  of  Indianapolis, 
is  the  largest  city,  then  comes  Basel,  noted  for  its  manu- 
facturing, Geneva,  the  commercial  and  business  center  of 
the  country,  and  then  the  capital,  Bern. 

We  spend  some  time  in  Bern.  It  is  a  quaint,  old- 
fashioned  town  lying  under  the  shadow  of  the  Alps  on 
both  sides  of  the  turbulent  river  Aar.  Its  streets  run  up 
hill  and  down,  and  the  houses  of  the  upper  level  sometimes 
hang  out  over  those  below.  The  most  of  the  buildings  are 
of  gray  stone,  with  roofs  of  red  tiles.  The  stores  front  on 
arcades  or  cloisters,  which  seem  as  dark  as  a  pocket,  when 
you  enter  them  from  the  dazzling  sunlight  outside.  Beside 
the  doors,  out  in  the  arcades,  are  benches  or  chairs,  on  which 
women  sit  knitting,  while  they  sell  toys,  fruit,  and  laces. 


270 


SWITZERLAND. 


We  go  to  the  federal  palace  to  call  upon  the  president. 
We  visit  the  public  gardens,  and  stop  for  a  moment  before 
the  hideous  statue  of  the  Child-eating  Ogre.  This  is  a  figure 
of  a  giant  sitting  on  a  stone  column,  with  a  bundle  of  babies 
beside  him.  He  has  taken  a  baby  out  of  the  bundle  with 
his  right  hand,  and  is  putting  it  into  his  mouth,  while  the 
other  little  ones  calmly  wait  their  turns  to  be  eaten.     The 


"We  visit  the  bear  pit." 

giant  is  horrid,  and  we  may  see  it  again  in  our  dreams, 
imagining  ourselves  in  his  power. 

We  next  visit  the  bear  pit,  a  well  with  a  railing  about  it 
where  some  huge  bears  are  always  kept  by  the  city,  in 
honor  of  its  name  "  Bern,"  which  means  bear.  For  the 
same  reason  there  are  stone  bears  ornamenting  many  of 
the  buildings,  and  also  the  procession  of  little  wooden 
bears,  which  every  hour  comes  out  of  the  great  clock  on 


FROM    ULM  TO   VIENNA.  2/1 

the  tower  in  the  center  of  the  city.  As  the  clock  strikes, 
a  cock  claps  his  wings,  and  crows,  and  then  the  bears 
come  forth,  and  bow  their  heads,  as  they  march  about  a 
figure  of  old  Father  Time,  who  reviews  them.  We  buy 
some  bread  and  apples  from  an  old  woman,  near  the  bear 
pit,  and  feed  the  live  monsters,  which  stand  on  their  hind 
legs  and  catch  the  food  in  their  red  mouths  as  it  falls. 

Later  on  we  buy  gingerbread  bears,  and  bears  of  white 
candy,  with  red  peppermint  tongues,  at  a  cook  shop  near 
by,  and  also  toy  bears  of  brass  and  carved  wood,  to  take 
home  as  mementos  of  Bern. 


>>•*<• 


XXVIII.     THE    UPPER    DANUBE  — FROM    ULM 
TO   VIENNA. 

THE  Danube  is,  next  to  the  Volga,  the  largest  river  of 
Europe.  It  drains  a  basin  more  than  six  times  the 
size  of  the  state  of  New  York,  and  is  also  connected  by 
canals  with  the  basins  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe.  It  is 
about  twice  as  long  as  the  Rhine,  and  is  quite  as  important 
as  a  commercial  water  way. 

Until  about  the  time  Columbus  discovered  America,  the 
Danube  was  one  of  the  two  chief  trade  routes  from  Asia 
to  Europe.  Then  no  one  thought  it  possible  to  go  to  India 
and  China  by  sea,  as  is  now  done,  about  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  or  through  the  Suez  Canal.  All  the  spices,  tea, 
and  dried  fruits,  all  the  fine  silks,  pearls,  and  other  beau- 
tiful things  from  China,  Japan,  India,  and  the  various 
parts  of  Asia,  were  carried  overland  to  the  Mediterranean 
ports.  Here  they  were  shipped  either  to  Venice,  to  be  taken 
across  the  Alps  to  the  Rhine,  or  to  Constantinople  and 

CARP.   EUROPE —  17 


272  THE  UPPER  DANUBE. 

across  the  Black  Sea  to  the  mouths  of  the  Danube,  and 
on  up  that  stream  to  be  transferred  to  the  Rhine.  In 
the  same  way  woolen  clothes  and  other  goods  from  Hol- 
land, Belgium,  France,  Germany,  and  England,  were  sent 
up  the  Rhine  and  thence  down  the  Danube  to  Constan- 
tinople. 

The  Danube  was  also  one  of  the  chief  routes  of  the 
Crusaders,  the  knights  of  the  Middle  Ages  who  went  to 
the  Holy  Land  to  redeem  the  tomb  of  our  Savior  from 
the  Turks.  In  our  journey  we  shall  see  the  castles  where 
some  of  them  were  imprisoned  by  'the  robber  barons  for 
ransom.  Between  the  towns  of  Linz  and  Vienna  are  the 
remains  of  a  dungeon  in  which  Richard  the  Lion-hearted, 
king  of  England,  was  imprisoned  for  sixteen  months,  while 
his  bad  brother  John  ruled.  •  One  day  he  heard  a  familiar 
air  played  under  his  window,  from  which  he  knew  that  his 
servant  Blondell  was  outside,  and  through  him  was  able  to 
make  his  escape. 

To-day  the  Danube  is  traveled  more  than  ever,  although 
it  has  lost  much  of  its  commerce  with  Asia.  It  flows 
through  rich  countries  which  are  now  teeming  with  peo- 
ple. Cities  and  towns  have  grown  up  on -its  banks,  and 
vast  quantities  of  lumber,  manufactured  goods,  and  food 
products  are  carried  back  and  forth  over  its  waters. 

But  we  shall  see  all  this  much  better  as  we  steam  down 
the  river.  We  leave  Bern  by  train,  and  passing  througli 
the  Black  Forest,  stop  first  at  Ulm,  a  quaint  little  city  at  the 
head  of  the  navigation  of  the  Danube.  It  has  crooked 
streets  and  old  houses,  many  of  which  were  built  before 
the  new  route  to  Asia  was  discovered,  when  Ulm,  which 
was  then  easily  reached  from  Italy  by  several  passes  over 
the  Alps,  was  twice  as  big  as  it  is  now.  We  take  a  boat 
and  row  out  into  the  river.     The  water  is  yellow  with  mud, 


FROM   ULM  TO  VIENNA. 


273 


and  we  look  in  vain  for  the  beautiful  blue  in  which  the 
Danube  has  been  painted  in  song  and  story.  At  Ulm  it 
is  only  an  ordinary  stream,  and  we  are  much  disappointed. 

We  are  told,  however,  that  the  river  grows  more  interest- 
ing after  it  flows  into  Austria;  and  as  there  are  several 
towns  in  Bavaria  which  we  wish  to  see,  we  postpone  our 
water  journey  until  later. 

We  first  go  to  Nuremberg.  Like  Ulm,  it  was  a  great 
town  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  is  still  one  of  the  famous 
cities  of  Europe.  Its 
houses  have  quaint 
roofs  with  sharp 
gables ;  they  have 
many  old  windows, 
with  small  panes  of 
glass,  which  seem  to 
frown  down  on  the 
electric  cars  pass- 
ing below  through 
the  crooked  streets. 
There  is  an  old  wall 
about  the  town. 
Many  of  the  houses 
have  antique  carv- 
ings and  statues  of 
wizards  and  ogres 
upon  them,  and  they 
are  so  jumbled  together  that  we  wonder  if  the  architects 
did  not  have  the  nightmare,  for  they  seem  to  have  tangled 
up  the  town  in  their  dreams. 

There  is  one  thing,  however,  that  dehghts  us  in  Nurem- 
berg. This  is  the  toys.  There  is  no  other  city  in  the 
world  where  so  many  toys  are  made,  and  no  other  place 


Its  houses  have  quaint  roofs  and  sharp 
gables." 


274 


THE  UPPER   DANUBE. 


where  you  can  buy  them  so  cheap.  There  are  thousands 
of  people  who  work  at  nothing  else  but  toys.  They  make 
all  sorts  of  playthings  :  dolls  that  will  talk,  dogs  that  will 
bark,  and  woolen  kittens  that  mew  so  naturally  that  all  the 
live  cats  in  the  neighborhood  stop  still  and  listen.  They 
make  toys  of  wood,  and  toys  of  metal,  steam  toys,  and 

electrical  toys,  and 
in  fact  every  sort  of 
toy  you  can  imagine. 
They  manufacture  so 
many  toys  that  great 
boxes  and  bales  of 
them  are  shipped 
every  year  to  all  parts 
of  Europe  and  our 
country,  to  be  there 
in  time  for  the  holiday 
trade.  After  visiting 
the  factories  we  lin- 
ger long  in  the  toy 
bazars,  each  buying 
some  of  the  little 
mechanical  wonders 
to  carry  back  to 
America. 
Victory  Gate.  Munich.  Nuremberg       has 

been  noted  for  centuries  for  its  beautiful  toys.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Crusaders  and  others  here  got  many  of 
the  presents  they  carried  home  to  their  children ;  and  it 
was  here  that  were  made  the  first  watches,  which  went  by 
the  name  of  "  Nuremberg  Eggs,"  because  these  watches 
were  shaped  somewhat  like  an  egg. 

From  Nuremberg  we  take  train  for  Munich,  the  capital 


FROM   ULM  TO  VIENNA. 


275 


of  Bavaria.  It  is  larger  than  Buffalo,  and  is  one  of  the 
finest  cities  of  Europe.  It  has  many  beautiful  statues  and 
monuments.  It  is  noted  for  its  music;  it  has  one  of  the 
largest  libraries  of  the  world,  and  its  art  galleries  have  so 
many  fine  pictures  that  hundreds  of  Americans  come  here 
to  study  painting.  It  is  also  a  great  railroad  center,  and  a 
grain  market,  and  it  has  factories  of  many  kinds. 

There  is  one  thing  made  in  Munich  which  many  of  the- 
Germans  might  think  more  important  than  any  other. 
What  do  you  think  it  is  ?  It  is  beer.  Munich  makes  vast 
quantities  of  this  liquor  and  exports  it  to  all  parts  of  the 
world.  There  are  beer  halls  and  beer  cellars  everywhere 
in  the  German  cities,  and  many  gardens  where  the  people 
drink  while  they  listen  to  music. 


"//,. 


Farm  House. 


From  Munich  we  take  train  for  Salzburg,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Alps  on  the  border  of  Austria.  The  Alps  extend 
from  Switzerland  across  southern  Bavaria  and  on  into 
Austria,  being  then  known  as  the  Tyrol.   We  ride  slowly  out 


276  THE  UPPER  DANUBE. 

of  Munich,  and  then  move  rapidly  over  the  plateau  of 
Bavaria.  The  scenes  are  somewhat  like  those  of  north- 
ern Germany.  The  farmers  live  in  villages,  so  we  see  no 
barns  nor  houses  standing  alone  in  the  fields.  There  are 
no  fences,  the  cattle  are  herded  or  kept  in  stables,  and 
the  cut  grass  is  brought  to  them.  We  see  men,  women, 
and  children  at  work.  There  is  a  field  where  several  girls 
are  raking  hay,  and  here  an  old  woman  is  kneeling  down 
weeding  the  corn,  while  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  track 
a  boy  is  loading  up  grass  on  a  cart  drawn  by  a  dog. 

The  roads  are  well  kept  and  as  smooth  as  a  floor.  They 
form  long  white  stripes  through  the  green  fields.  They  are 
lined  with  forest  trees,  so  that  we  can  see  them  stretching 
away  for  miles  over  the  landscape. 

Farther  on  we  ride  along  great  beds  of  peat,  where 
the  people  are  digging  out  their  winter  fuel,  and  laying  it 
in  thesun  to  dry.  The  scenes  remind  us  of  our  travels  in 
Ireland.  There  are  miles  of  peat  beds  in  southern  Ger- 
many, supplying,  not  only  the  farmers,  but  also  Munich, 
with  fuel,  for  the  peat  is  cheaper  than  coal  and  it  makes  a 
warm  fire. 

We  stop  at  Salzburg,  on  the  border  of  Germany  and 
Austria,  to  visit  the  great  salt  mines  of  Hallein  in  the 
mountains  near  by.  The  deposits  are  of  vast  extent  and 
great  value.  They  have  been  worked  for  ages,  and  even 
in  the  times  of  the  Romans  salt  came  from  here.  We  are 
permitted  to  go  down  into  the  mines  accompanied  by  one 
of  the  workmen.  We  first  change  our  clothing,  each 
putting  on  an  old  fez  cap  and  a  suit  of  dirty  white  sail 
cloth  such  as  is  used  by  the  miners.  We  have  thick  leather 
mittens  and  heavy-soled  shoes.  It  all  seems  very  odd,  and 
we  laugh  at  one  another  as  we  stand  at  the  entrance  of 
the  mine  to  have  our  photographs  taken. 


FROM   ULM  TO  VIENNA.  2/7 

Then,  accompanied  by  our  guide,  we  climb  down  one 
ladder  after  another,  going  down,  down,  down  into  the 
earth.  It  is  dark  and  the  guides  give  us  candles.  Now 
we  get  astride  of  a  smooth  rail  or  board  and  slide  down, 
many  feet  farther,  holding  to  a  rope  at  the  side.  The  de- 
scent is  steep  and  it  is  only  our  thick  leather  gloves  that 
keep  our  hands  from  being  bhstered  and  burned.  We 
drop  rapidly,  and  at  last  come  to  the  bottom  where  the  salt 
workings  are. 

We  have  passed  many  tunnels  above,  and  now  see 
that  the  earth  is  honeycombed  on  all  sides  with  passages. 
Long  avenues,  which  have  been  cut  out  of  the  salt  rock,  go 
this  way  and  that  through  the  mountain.  There  are  so 
many  of  them  that  we  keep  close  to  our  guide,  for  we 
tremble  to  think  how  easy  it  would  be  to  get  lost  and 
never  find  our  way  out.  Many  of  the  tunnels  are  crooked 
and  long  since  abandoned.  Some  have  water  in  them,  and 
a  false  step  might  drop  us  into  a  pool. 

Our  guide  leads  us  onward,  and  at  last  we  come  to  a 
great  lake  'way  down  here  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains. 
There  are  lights  about  the  lake  which  aid  in  dispelling  the 
gloom,  and  we  can  see  that  the  earth  is  not  far  above  the 
water.  As  we  get  into  the  boat  we  stand  up  and  scratch 
off  a  bit  of  the  dirt  roof,  and  touch  it  to  our  tongues.  It, 
is  as  salt  as  the  sea.  The  lakes  are  sometimes  allowed  to 
wash  down  the  salt,  their  outlets  being  shut  off  so  that  the 
water  goes  clear  to  the  roof.  Great  piles  of  salt  are 
thrown  into  them,  and  the  salt  is  dissolved  in  the  water. 

This  is  the  case  with  the  lake  on  which  we  are  riding. 
Lean  over  and  let  your  hand  drag  at  the  side  of  the  boat, 
and  then  lick  your  fingers.  How  salty  they  are !  The 
water  is  briny !  After  it  has  become  well  filled  with  salt 
it  will  be  flowed  off  through  pipes  down  the  mountains  to 


2/8  THE  UPPER  DANUBE. 

great  evaporating  tanks,  where  the  water  will  be  driven  off 
by  heat  and  the  dry  salt  be  left. 

But  here  we  are  at  the  farther  shore  and  the  guide  tells 
us  to  hurry.  He  takes  us  to  some  little  cars  where  the 
miners  are  waiting  to  push  us  out.  We  climb  in,  and  with 
the  men  pulling  and  shoving  are  soon  brought  again  out 
to  the  dazzling  light  of  day. 

A  short  ride  on  the  railroad  from  Hallein  brings  us  to 
Linz  on  the  Danube,  where  it  flows  through  the  mountains 
from  Bavaria  to  Austria.  Here  we  take  passage  on  a  big 
river  steamer  and  are  soon  on  our  way  toward  Vienna. 
The  scenery  is  even  more  interesting  than  that  of  the 
Rhine.  The  mountains  are  higher,  the  rocks  are  steeper, 
and  there  are  almost  as  many  castles  and  old  robber 
fortresses. 

Now  we  float  by  green  meadows  on  which  fat  cattle  are 
grazing.  Now  we  pass  quaint  old  villages  of  one-story 
sharp-roofed  houses  built  close  to  the  street,  in  which  the 
goats  and  geese  are  picking  at  the  grass  between  the  cobble 
stones ;  and  now  along  hills  terraced  with  vineyards,  and 
mountains  covered  by  a  thick  growth  of  small  pines.  At 
some  places  we  are  close  to  the  banks,  and  at  others  so  far 
away  that  we  seem  to  be  in  a  lake  rather  than  a  river. 

Now  we  are  steaming  by  a  town  of  thatched  houses, 
little  buildings  of  stucco  with  windows  the  size  of  a  hand- 
kerchief. See  the  girls  doing  their  washing  over  there  on 
that  bank.  They  are  standing  up  to  their  knees  in  the 
water  and  pounding  the  dirt  out  of  the  clothes  with  long 
wooden  paddles.  Farther  down  stream  a  woman  is  bath- 
ing two  boys.  They  stand  up  to  their  waists  in  the 
water  while  she  scrubs  them  with  soap.  One  of  the  boys 
is  crying  and  we  judge  he  dislikes  his  daily  bath  as  much 
as  do  some  of  the  boys  of  our  country. 


FROM    ULM  TO  VIENNA.  279 

See  those  lumber  rafts  we  are  passing.  The  waves 
made  by  our  boat  roll  them  about  in  the  water,  and  the 
children  on  the  roofs  of  the  raft  houses  are  yelling  for 
fear.  What  queer-looking  craft!  The  logs  are  tied  to- 
gether in  piles,  and  upon  each  raft  is  a  hut  where  the 
lumbermen  live  while  they  row  and  float  down  the  river. 

We  pass  covered  barges  so  odd  that  they  make  us  think 
of  Noah's  Ark ;  they  belong  to  traders  who  are  carrying 
their  goods  from  one  Danube  town  to  another.  The 
traders  live  on  the  boats  with  their  families,  and  the  chil- 
dren play  about  on  the  floor  and  the  roofs.  They  wave 
their  hands  at  us  as  we  pass,  standing  so  close  to  the  edge 
of  the  boat  that  we  fear  the  little  ones  may  fall  in.  We 
wonder  why  their  parents  do  not  tie  little  barrels  to  their 
children  to  keep  them  from  sinking,  as  the  Chinese  do  with 
their  baby  boys  on  the  house  boats  of  southern  China. 

Now  we  are  stopping  to  take  on  some  pilgrims  who 
wish  to  worship  at  one  of  the  shrines  farther  down  stream. 
The  Danube  has  many  churches,  some  of  which  are  so 
holy  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  they  think  their  sins 
will  be  forgiven  if  they  can  only  pray  in  them.  Crosses 
sometimes  stand  in  the  village  streets,  and  the  people  pray 
there.  Our  pilgrims  are  Austrian  peasants  of  all  ages  and 
sizes,  from  little  children  to  full-grown  women  and  men. 
The  women  and  girls  wear  beads,  and  some  of  the  men 
carry  crosses  with  figures  of  the  Savior  upon  them,  and 
all  pray  and  sing,  and  cross  themselves  from  time  to  time. 

Now  we  pass  Durenstein,  the  great  castle  on  the  rock 
containing  the  dungeon  where  King  Richard  was  confined, 
and  now  other  ruined  castles,  each  of  which  could  tell 
many  sad  stories  of  the  cruelty,  robbery,  and  murders  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  this  was  the  great  pathway  to 
Palestine. 


280 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


"Crosses  sometimes  stand  in  the  village  street." 

The  traffic  thickens  as  we  steam  onward.  We  pass 
market  boats,  wood  rafts,  and  grain  and  wool  barges. 
We  move  on,  in  and  out  among  launches,  tugs,  and  steam- 
ers of  all  sizes,  until  in  the  distance  we  see  the  tall  spire 
of  Saint  Stephen's  cathedral,  and  the  high  buildings  of  the 
great  city  of  Vienna  (see  map,  p.  292). 


XXIX.     IN   THE   CAPITAL   OF  AUSTRIA- 
HUNGARY. 

BEFORE  we  go  out  to  explore  Vienna  I  want  to  tell 
you  something  about  the  great  country  of  which  it  is 
the  capital.  Austria-Hungary  is  larger  than  any  land  we 
have  yet  visited.  It  is  the  largest  country  of  Europe 
except  Russia,  and  it  has  more  different  nations  in  it  than 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


28 


any  other.  You  may  think  its  people  are  much  like  the 
Germans.  So  they  ate  in  the  western  part  through  which 
we  have  passed,  and  also  here  in  Vienna ;  but  in  Bohemia 
at  the  north  they  have  a  different  language,  near  Russia 
they  speak  the  Po- 
lish, and  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Italy  they 
speak  Italian.  Aus- 
tria has  thousands 
of  schools  where 
the  children  are 
taught  in  the  Czechs 
(chechs  or  cheks) 
tongue,  and  other 
thousands  where 
they  speak  the  Slav. 
In  Hungary  it  is 
even  worse.  There 
are  many  there  who 
speak  Magyar,  and 
many  who  talk  like 
our  gypsies ;  other 
dialects  are  almost 
Turkish.  There  are 
so  many  strange 
languages  that  if 
we  leave  the  main 
traveled  roads  we 
shall  need  a  new  guide  every  day.  We  shall  find  the 
people  are  as  odd  as  their  speech,  for  they  are  of  many 
races  joined  together  under  one  ruler.  There  are  in  all 
more  than  forty  millions  of  them,  and  they  are  a  very 
great  nation  indeed. 


"The  people  are  as  odd  as  their  speech. 
Roumanian  Girls. 


2S2  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

The  Austro'Hungarians  have  one  of  the  richest  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  although  it  is  not  ^o  fully  developed  as 
those  through  which  we  have  traveled.  The  land  is  one  of 
many  mountains  and  two  very  large  plains.  The  moun- 
tains comprise  the  Eastern  Alps  or  the  Tyrol,  where  the 
scenery  is  much  like  that  of  Switzerland,  and  the  Transyl- 
vanian  and  Carpathian  Mountains,  which  are  wilder,  as 
well  as  smaller  ranges.  All  the  mountains  contain  min- 
erals, including  coal,  iron,  gold,  silver,  quicksilver,  lead, 
copper,  and  zinc.  Some  have  great  beds  of  salt  and  others 
deposits  of  sulphur,  bismuth,  and  alum.  Some  are  also 
covered  with  dense  forests,  in  which  are  bears,  wolves, 
deer,  and  wild  hogs. 

At  the  north,  surrounded  by  hills  in  the  upper  basin  of 
the  Elbe,  is  the  plateau  of  Bohemia.  It  is  very  near  the 
thickly  populated  district  of  Saxony,  which  we  visited  after 
leaving  Berlin.  Here  the  land  is  densely  populated.  There 
are  many  factories,  glass  works,  and  other  industries  sup- 
ported by  the  coal  and  other  minerals  near  by.  At  the 
south,  in  the  basin  of  the  Danube,  partially  walled  in  by 
the  Carpathian  and  Transylvanian  Mountains,  is  the  vast 
flat  plain  of  Hungary,  which  produces  so  much  wheat,  rye, 
corn,  and  barley  that  it  is  called  the  granary  of  Europe. 
It  feeds  millions  of  sheep,  hogs,  and  cattle,  and  raises  food 
stuffs  for  export. 

Not  one  of  the  other  countries  we  have  visited  raises 
enough  food  for  its  own  people.  Austria-Hungary  not 
only  supplies  its  own  people,  but  is  able  to  sell  meat, 
flour,  and  grain  to  Switzerland,  Italy,  Germany,  France, 
and  England.  It  is  rapidly  growing  as  a  manufacturing 
country,  and  although  it  is  in  the  heart  of  southern 
Europe,  with  only  a  small  strip  of  seacoast,  it  has  a  large 
trade  with  other  nations.     It  has  two  thriving  ports  at  the 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


283 


head  of  the  Adriatic  Sea  in  the  cities  of  Trieste  and  Fiume, 
and  by  the  Danube  it  sends  grain  down  to  the  Black  Sea, 
and  out  through  the  Bosporus  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

At  Vienna  we  learn  how  the  empire  is  governed.  The 
two  states  of  which  it  is  composed  are  independent  of 
each  other  in  most  things,  but  they  have  only  one  ruler 
as  to  national  affairs.  Do  you  remember  any  other  part 
of  Europe  which  is  governed  in  this  way  ?  We  found 
the  same  thing  in 
Norway  and  Swe- 
den, but  the  people 
there  were  of  one 
race.  Here,  as  we 
have  seen,  they  are 
of  many  different 
races  and  hence  are 
less  closely  joined. 

Austria  and  Hun- 
gary form  the 
Austro  -  Hungarian 
monarchy,  which  is 
a  union  of  the  Aus- 
trian empire  and  the 
Hungarian  king- 


The  Emperor's  Bodyguard. 


dom,  under  a  ruler  who  has  the  titles  of  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  and  the  King  of  Hungary.  The  ruler  is  required 
to  spend  part  of  the  year  in  each  country.  His  home  in 
Austria  is  at  its  capital,  Vienna,  and  in  Hungary  at  Buda- 
pest (boo'do-pest),  the  capital  of  that  country.  He  has 
palaces  in  both  places,  but  exercises  far  more  power  over 
the  Austrians  than  over  the  Hungarians. 

Each  country  has  its  own  Congress,  elected  by  the  vote 
of  its  people,  and  it  therefore  governs  itself ;  although  for 


284  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

defense  and  for  dealings  with  other  nations  it  is  united  in 
a  combined  monarchy.  For  instance,  one  minister  repre- 
sents the  two  countries  at  Washington. 

Take  a  look  at  your  map  and  notice  the  extensive 
frontier  of  Austria-Hungary.  It  is  almost  as  long  as  the 
distance  from  California  to  China.  The  monarchy  is  sur- 
rounded by  other  nations,  its  only  strip  of  seacoast  being 
upon  the  narrow  Adriatic  Sea,  with  Italy  just  over  the 
way.  The  result  is  that  large  fortresses  and  a  great  army 
are  required  to' defend  it.  We  shall  meet  almost  as  many 
soldiers  here  as  in  Germany.  Every  man  belongs  to  the 
army,  and  must  be  ready  to  go  out  to  fight  at  any  time,  so 
that  if  war  were  declared  four  million  soldiers  could  at 
once  be  put  into  the  field.  It  costs  a  vast  amount  to  sup- 
port such  large  armies,  and  the  people  must  therefore  pay 
heavy  taxes.  Is  it  not  a  fine  thing  for  us  that  our  country 
is  off  by  itself  and  so  protected  by  the  oceans  that  we  can 
get  along  with  few  soldiers  ? 

But  let  us  start  out  for  a  ride  through  Vienna.  Here 
we  are  on  Ring  Street,  the  wide  avenue  which  surrounds 
the  heart  of  the  city.  It  is  a  broad  street  about  two  miles 
in  length,  with  double  rows  of  linden  trees  in  the  center, 
lined  with  such  magnificent  buildings  that  it  has  been 
called  the  finest  street  of  the  world.  Here  are  the  Houses 
of  Parliament,  the  university  containing  six  thousand  stu- 
dents, the  great  museums  and  picture  galleries,  the  large 
hotels,  and  so  many  fine  stores  that  we  seem  to  be  driving 
through  a  long  exposition.  The  buildings  are  enormous. 
Some  single  establishments  cover  a  whole  block.  Nearly 
all  have  five  or  six  stories,  with  stores  on  the  ground  floor 
and  apartments  above,  like  the  houses  we  saw  in  Berlin. 
The  Viennese  live  in  flats,  and  very  few  single  families 
own  a  whole  house. 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


285 


How  gay  and  lively  everything  is !  Did  you  ever  see 
more  beautiful  stores,  better  buildings,  or  people  who 
seem  to  enjoy  themselves  more  ?  Vienna  vies  with  Paris 
as  the  gayest  city  of  Europe.  Its  people  are  noted  for 
their  fondness  for  pleasure  and  their  extravagant  ways. 
They  are  said  to  have  more  rich  among  them  than  any 
other  city  on  the  Continent.  Every  one  lives  up  to  his 
means  and  all  seem  to  live  for  the  day.  They  are  well 
dressed  and  fond  of  showing  their  clothes.  They  are 
famous  for  their  jollity  and  their  love  of  music.  There 
are  concert  halls  in  every  section  of  the  city,  and  the  Im- 
perial Opera  House  on  Ring  Street  is  one  of  the  largest 
of  the  world. 

As  we  stroll  along  through  the  well-dressed  crowds  on 
the  streets  we  see  many  strange  faces  and  costumes.  There 
comes  a  dark -bearded  Turk  with  a  red 
fez  cap  on  his  head.  Behind  him  is  a 
light-haired  Jew  from  Bohemia,  with  two 
blond  curls  hanging  down  in  front  of  his 
ears,  while  farther  back  are  a  Bulgarian 
peddling  canes,  a  gypsy  from  the  lower 
Danube,  and  two  Greeks  in  skirts.  We 
stop  a  few  moments  to  watch  the  crowds 
as  they  pass,  seeing  Hungarians 
and  Bohemians,  Italians  an-:'  Rus- 
sians, Armenians  and  Swedes,  as 
well  as  Germans  and  French,  and 
others  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 

Vienna  is  at  one  of  the  great  crossroads  of  this  conti- 
nent, and  people  of  all  nations  pass  through  her  wide 
streets.  One  human  stream  of  many  races  flows  up  the 
valley  of  the  Danube,  coming  out  of  the  Orient,  and  an- 
other from  northern  and  western  Europe  is  always  flowing 


— we  see  many  strange 
faces  and  costumes." 


286  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

down.  A  third  stream  comes  from  Italy  across  the  low 
passes  of  the  Austrian  Alps  on  its  way  to  and  from  Russia 
and  Germany  by  way  of  Bohemia,  the  Elbe  and  Oder,  and 
others  flow  down  from  East  Russia  and  Germany.  It  was 
its  situation  at  the  junction  of  these  great  streams  that  first 
started  Vienna.  Even  in  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  con- 
sidered a  good  place  for  commerce  and  trade,  and  of  late 
years  railroads  have  been  built  out  from  it  in  every  direc- 
tion, so  that  it  is  now  connected  by  steel  tracks  with  all 
other  parts  of  Europe.  To-day  fast  express  trains  will 
take  you  from  here  to  Berlin  or  to  Rome,  or  by  the  famous 
Orient  Express  you  may  almost  fly  to  Paris  or  Constanti- 
nople. Vienna  is  also  the  center  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy,  and  as  such  is  the  supply  point  for  a  large  part 
of  the  trade  of  its  forty  millions  of  people. 

But  let  us  take  a  stroll  out  to  the  Prater  (pra'ter),  the 
chief  pleasure  grounds  of  this  pleasure-loving  city.  It  is 
a  great  forest  park,  embraced  in  the  arms  of  the  Danube, 
and  reached  by  bridges  filled  with  foot  passengers  and 
vehicles  going  over  and  back.  The  Prater  has  about  four 
thousand  acres  of  oaks,  ash,  chestnuts,  and  elms,  the 
branches  of  which  meet  over  its  driveways  and  shut  out 
the  sun.  It  has  lakes  and  canals,  and  velvety  lawns,  and 
shady  nooks  with  seats  under  the  trees.  Formerly  it  had 
many  tame  deer,  which  ran  about  through  the  woods  and 
allowed  the  children  to  pet  them.     ^ 

But  here  we  are  just  inside  the  park. '  How  crowded  it 
is,  and  how  all  are  enjoying  themselves !  We  are  hustled 
this  way  and  that  by  the  good-natured  people,  who  beg 
our  pardon  in  German  for  rubbing  against  us.  We  say, 
"  Bitte,"  which,  as  they  understand,  means  "  it  does  not 
matter,"  and  go  along  with  them.  Soon  we  come  to  a  part 
of  the  grounds  where  there  are  more  shows  for  children 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


287 


than  at  Coney  Island  and  Atlantic  City  combined ;  and  we 
are  glad  of  the  fun  after  our  hard  study  and  travel.  We 
take  rides  upon  the  wooden  horses,  lions,  elephants,  and 
camels  of  the  merry-go-rounds ;  we  fly  about  on  the  roller 
coaster  railroads ;  we  sUde  down  **  chutes  "  like  lightning, 
and    see   so    many  peep    shows,   Punch    and  Judys,   and 


But  let  us  take  a  stroll  out  to  the  Prater.' 


Other  things,  that  we  are  almost  distracted.  Then  there 
are  donkeys  to  ride,  and  so  many  goat  and  dog  carriages 
to  drive  that  we  can't  try  them  all,  although  the  fare  in 
most  cases  is  only  five  kreutzers,  or  about  two  cents  of  our 
money. 

We  see  many  little  Austrians  picnicking  under  the  trees, 
and  watch  boys  and  girls  with  their  mothers  eating  at  the 
restaurants,  while  they  listen  to  the  music  of  the  bands. 


CARP.    EUROPE- 


18 


288 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


We  look  in  at  the  concert  hall,  where  hundreds  are  danc- 
ing, and  take  a  free  plunge  into  the  city  baths,  where  more 
than  a  thousand  can  wash  themselves  at  one  time.  We 
then  go  to  the  Haupt  Allee,  to  watch  the  splendid  car- 
riages of  the  rich,  who  drive  there  every  evening,  and  then 
walk  out  and  take  the  street  cars  back  to  our  hotel. 

Another  day  is  spent  in  the  Belvedere  Picture  Gallery, 
the  great  museums,  and  the  imperial  library,  one  of  the 


"We  visit  the  emperor's  palace." 

largest  of  the  world.  We  visit  the  emperor's  palace,  and 
linger  long  in  the  treasure  vaults,  carefully  watched  by 
the  guards ;  for  here,  spread  out  in  cases  before  our 
eyes,  separated  from  us  only  by  plates  of  glass,  are  some 
of  the  most  valuable  diamonds,  pearls,  and  other  precious 
stones  that  have  ever  been  found.  Among  them  is  the 
Florentine  diamond  that  Charles  the  Bold  lost  on  the 
battlefield  of  Granson  in  1476.     It  was  picked  up  by  a 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.  289 

Swiss  soldier,  who  thought  it  a  piece  of  glass  and  sold  it 
to  a  merchant  of  Bern  for  two  dollars  and  a  half,  although 
it  is  now  valued  at  ;^  12 5,000.  Near  this  diamond  is  an 
emerald  which  weighs  almost  three  thousand  carats,  and  in 
the  cases  about  us  are  so  many  necklaces,  crowns,  and  other 
things  set  with  diamonds,  that  our  eyes  are  dazzled  by 
them,  and  we  wonder  if  we  have  not  by  mistake  got  into 
the  cave  of  Aladdin,  and  look  about  for  the  lamp  to  rub 
our  way  out.  There  are  cups,  vases,  and  basins  of 
gold  beautifully  carved,  the  crown  of  Charlemagne,  the 
sword  of  Haroun  al  Raschid,  a  Persian  ruler  who  figures 
in  the  "Arabian  Nights,"  and  also  the  silver  cradle  set 
with  jewels  in  which  Napoleon's  little  son,  the  king  of 
Rome,  lay  when  a  baby.  The  cradle  weighs  five  hundred 
pounds,  and  we  wonder  if  the  nurse  did  not  grow  tired 
rocking  it  when  the  little  king  was  fretful  over  cutting  his 
teeth. 

We  climb  to  the  top  of  the  great  cathedral  of  Saint  Ste- 
phen's for  a  look  over  Vienna.  The  spire  is  four  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  high,  and  we  have  a  grand  view  of  the  city 
and  its  surroundings.  Below  us  He  many  of  the  battle- 
fields of  the  past ;  we  look  over  the  wooded  hills  in  the 
distance  and  see  the  wide  Danube,  spotted  with  shipping, 
flowing  amongst  them.  The  forests,  we  are  told,  once 
came  clear  to  the  square  in  which  the  church  stands,  and 
beside  one  of  the  buildings  upon  it  there  is  a  stump  pro- 
tected by  iron  bands  which  once  marked  the  limit  of  those 
great  woods  of  the  past.  It  is  called  the  Iron  Stick,  and 
its  surface  is  studded  with  nails  driven  in  by  the  locksmiths 
of  Vienna.  According  to  our  guide,  each  smith  had  the 
right  to  put  in  a  nail  upon  leaving  the  city,  after  which  it 
was  supposed  he  would  have  the  protection  of  the  spirits 
and  be  lucky. 


290 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


r 

^  =^-. 

^i^ 

^WHH'^  '    '    m  M               %  \  m^M 

^^^^f^^-T 

P,  i   'msmm 

■mt 

^'n  T^ 

.^^I^'v^&SIHHHI 

"  —  we  walk  through  the  Graben." 

Coming  out  of  the  cathedral,  we  walk  through  the 
Graben,  one  of  the  oldest  streets  of  Vienna  and  its  chief 
shopping  section.  The  stores  have  plate  glass  windows 
in  which  are  displayed  all  sorts  of  beautiful  things  made 
of  leather,  ivory,  silver,  and  gold.  There  are  quantities  of 
fine  china  and  cut  glass,  and  almost  as  many  knickknacks 
and  notions  as  we  saw  on  the  boulevards  of  Paris.  Vienna 
is  noted  for  its  novelties.  It  weaves  silks,  cottons,  and 
woolens ;  has  great  works  in  which  machines  of  many 
kinds  are  turned  out,  and  it  has  factories  of  almost  every 
description.  The  people  manufacture  many  things  in  their 
homes,  and  we  notice  that  the  lives  of  the  poorer  classes 
are  by  no  means  all  play. 

The  women  do  as  much  work  as  the  men.  They  wait 
upon  us  in  the  stores,  they  are  the  cashiers  of  the  restau- 
rants, and  while  we  eat  and  drink  our  ears  are  delighted 


IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.  29 1 

by  bands  of  female  musicians.  The  Austrian  women  do 
all  sorts  of  work  in  the  factories,  and  in  Vienna  itself  we 
sometimes  see  them  pushing  loaded  wheelbarrows  through 
the  streets,  and  even  carrying  bricks  and  mortar  on  their 
shoulders  up  ladders  to  the  masons  on  the  new  buildings. 
They  have  long  hours  and  receive  less  wages  than  the  men. 

Among  the  most  beautiful  things  in  the  stores  of 
Vienna  are  the  various  kinds  of  Bohemian  glassware  and 
jewelry,  including  opals  and  garnets.  The  opals  are  from 
Hungary ;' and  the  garnets  are  so  cheap  that  we  ask  where 
they  come  from,  and  are  told  that  they  are  mined  in  Bohe- 
mia, not  far  from  Prague.  Garnets  are  precious  stones 
which  lie  in  the  earth  mixed  with  gravel.  In  gathering 
them  the  dirt  is  first  washed  off,  and  the  stones  are  then 
sorted  by  running  them  through  sieves.  After  this,  they 
are  cut  much  as  we  saw  them  cutting  diamonds  in  Amster- 
dam, save  that  emery  paste  instead  of  diamond  dust  is  put 
on  the  revolving  grinding  plates.  The  garnets  are  fastened 
to  sticks  with  cement,  and  are  held  against  the  plates  in 
such  a  way  that  many  sides  or  facets  are  cut  in  them. 
The  most  beaiitiful  are  of  a  bright  red  color,  although 
white,  yellow,  green,  and  black  garnets  are  found. 

During  our  stay  in  Vienna  we  take  many  excursions  to 
the  suburbs,  visiting  among  other  places  the  emperor's 
summer  palace  at  Shoenbrunn  (shon'broon),  where  Napo- 
leon Bonaparte  had  his  headquarters  when  he  besieged 
Vienna  and  made  it  surrender.  The  garden  and  park  are 
both  beautiful.  There  are  long  avenues  broken  by  statues 
and  fountains,  and  the  whole  looks  more  like  fairyland 
than  sober  nature.  Every  tree  has  been  cut  and  trimmed 
into  some  curious  form.  At  one  place  there  is  a  wall  of 
green,  fifty  feet  high,  as  smooth  as  though  it  were  made 
by  a  sculptor,  and  in  others  are  trees  of  all  shapes. 


(292) 


HUNGARY  AND  THE  HUNGARIANS.        293 


XXX.  HUNGARY  AND  THE  HUNGARIANS. 

WE  take  the  steamer  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning 
and  have  an  all  day  ride  down  the  Danube  to  Buda- 
pest, the  capital  of  Hungary.  Our  ship  is  as  comfortable 
as  that  in  which  we  sailed  up  the  Rhine.  It  is  crowded 
with  peasants  on  the  two  lower  decks,  but  we  are  above, 
in  the  first  class,  and  have  plenty  of  room.  We  take  our 
camp  stools  out  under  the  awningswhich  have  been  stretched 
over  the  steamer,  and  make  notes  of  the  scenery  as  we  steam 
on  our  way. 

The  river  widens  as  we  leave  Vienna,  branching  out  into 
great  arms  embracing  islands  covered  with  woods.  We 
pass  gardens,  orchards,  and  vineyards  in  which  men, 
women,  and  children  are  working,  and  steam  on  by  quaint 
villages  where  the  boys  stand  on  the  Jxg.iiks  and  cry  out . 
salutations  in  German  to  us  as  we  go  by. 

After  a  few  hours  we  pass  out  of  Austria  and  enter 
Hungary,  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  Europe.  It  is 
more  than  fifteen  times  as  big  as  Massachusetts ;  and  al- 
most the  whole  of  it  has  excellent  soil.  The  northern  part, 
where  we  enter  the  kingdom,  is  hilly ;  we  pass  through  the 
little  Carpathian  Mountains  where  the  Danube  has  cut  its 
way  down  to  the  great  plains  which  lie  just  below. 

Now  we  are  stopping  at  Pressburg,  a  little  city  with  a 
ruined  castle  standing  on  the  hill  high  above  it.  This  town 
is  noted  in  Hungarian  history.  For  generations  the  kings 
were  crowned  in  one  of  its  churches,  and  its  Parliament  sat 
in  that  castle  there  on  the  hill.  At  one  time,  when  it  was 
sitting,  Maria  Theresa,  queen  of  Hungary  and  a  claimant 
of  the  Austrian  throne,  was  attacked  by  several  of  the 
great  nations  of  Europe.     The  young  queen,  so  it  is  said, 


294 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


appeared  before  the  Parliament  with  her  little  baby  boy  in 
her  arms.  She  held  the  boy  out  before  her  and  appealed 
to  the  members  to  aid  her  in  maintaining  his  rights.  She 
was  so  beautiful,  so  brave,  and  so  eloquent  that  she  carried 
the  Parliament  by  storm ;  the  nobles  arose  and  cried  out, 


Pressburg. 

"  We  will  die  for  our  queen,  the  brave  Maria  Theresa ! " 
They  fought  for  her,  and  it  was  through  their  help  that  she 
succeeded  in  holding  her  own. 

From  Pressburg  we  steam  rapidly  southward,  passing 
many  more  towns  and  villages.  There  are  railroads  all 
along  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  the  region  seems  to 


HUNGARY  AND  THE  HUNGARIANS. 


295 


have  a  great  population.  As  we  approach  Budapest,  we 
ride  for  miles  through  densely  populated  suburbs  before 
coming  to  anchor  at  the  stone  quays. 

We  are  surprised  at  Budapest.     We  knew  it  was  the 
capital  of  Hungary,  but  it  seemed  so  out  of  the  way  that 


Quays,  Budapest. 

we  had  not  thought  of  it  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
cities  ,of  Europe.  Indeed,  in  many  respects  it  is  finer 
than  Vienna,  although  it  is  not  half  so  large.  The  city  hes 
on  both  banks  of  the  Danube.  Six  great  bridges  have 
been  built  across  from  one  side  to  the  other,  and  there  is  a 


296  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

suspension  bridge  which  makes  us  think  of  our  bridges  at 
Cincinnati  and  Niagara  Falls. 

We  ask  why  a  city  has  grown  up  at  this  point,  and  are 
told  that  Budapest  lies  at  the  northern  end  of  the  great 
Hungarian  plain  where  the  highlands  begin,  and  that  its 
situation  on  the  Danube  makes  it  the  best  supply  place  and 
shipping  place  for  this  rich  agricultural  region.  We  see 
many  large  steam  flour  mills  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  with 
hundreds  of  vessels  and  barges  beside  them,  loading  and 
unloading  flour  and  grain.  Budapest  is  the  Minneapolis 
of  Europe.  It  is  one  of  its  chief  milling  centers,  for  there 
are  vast  wheat  fields  all  about  it,  and  Hungarian  wheat  is 
of  such  excellent  quality  that  bakers  will  pay  the  highest 
prices  for  its  flour. 

Budapest  is  so  situated  that  it  has  naturally  become  a 
great  railroad  center.  We  can  get  through  express  trains 
from  here  to  Paris  and  Constantinople,  and  there  are  lines 
connecting  us  with  all  other  parts  of  the  Hungarian  king- 
dom and  with  every  other  section  of  Europe.  The  city  has 
also  grown  because  it  has  been  the  capital  of  the  many  mil- 
lions of  the  Hungarian  people,  and  because  it  is  the  center 
of  their  social  life,  and  manufactures,  commerce,  and  trade. 

We  land  in  Budapest  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  The 
town  on  the  right  bank  is  called  Buda  and  that  on  the  left 
Pest,  the  two  now  forming  one  city.  The  towns  were  for 
a  long  time  separate,  Buda  being  the  older.  Indeed,  Buda 
was  an  important  place  in  the  time  of  the  Romans  and  it 
has  still  the  palace  of  the  king.  With  this  exception  it  is 
of  no  great  importance,  for  Pest  has  outstripped  it,  having 
by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  half  million  people  who 
live  in  the  two  towns. 

It  is  in  Pest  that  the  chief  buildings  are  situated,  and 
there  we  find  all  the  large  stores,  the  best  residences,  and 


HUNGARY  AND  THE  HUNGARIANS. 


297 


i-t^^^^i  I  ^^S^^I^;*^ifS-    "f 

k-- 

m\^ 

5S- ■^'"3 

m^ 

^ 

t .. 

Suspension  Bridge,  Budapest. 

the  great  government  buildings.  We  walk  from  the  boat 
to  our  hotel.  The  streets  are  wide  and  well  kept.  They 
are  paved  with  asphalt,  and  now  in  the  dusk  of  the  early 
evening  we  see  electric  lights  in  long  lines,  while  between 
them  electric  cars  are  flying  in  both  directions.  Budapest 
was  the  first  of  the  capitals  of  Europe  to  introduce  electric 
railroads,  and  we  can  ride  in  electric  cars  under  the  streets 
in  tunnels  which  have  been  made  for  the  purpose. 

Our  hotel  is  on  Franz  Joseph  Square,  not  far  from  the 
river.  The  long  steamboat  ride  has  made  us  quite  hungry, 
and  we  appreciate  the  meal,  which  is  served  in  Hungarian 
fashion.  Everything  is  well  cooked  and  the  food  is  deli- 
cious. The  band  plays  as  we  eat,  and  the  small  fee  we 
give  at  the  close  of  the  meal  makes  the  waiters  address 
us  with  respect,  and  insures  us  good  service  thereafter. 
The  custom  of  feeing  is  common  in  all  the  cities  of  Europe. 


298 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 


The  hotel  waiters  expect  it;  but  in  Budapest  they  are 
easily  satisfied,  and  there  is  no  other  place  where  one  gets 
so  much  honor  for  so  little  money.  If  you  hand  the  man 
two  kreutzers,  an  amount  equal  to  one  of  our  cents,  he 


Royal  Palace,  Budapest. 


will  address  you  as  "  Sir."  If  you  give  him  three  cents  he 
will  probably  call  you  "  your  Highness,"  and  for  six  cents 
you  can  be  elevated  to  the  rank  of  the  nobility. 

We  spend  some  time  in  Budapest.  It  is  a  gay  city, 
with  many  theaters,  concert  halls,  and  garden  caf^s, 
where    the,   people    sit    out    of    doors    and    partake    of 


HUNGARY  AND  THE  HUNGARIANS. 


299 


refreshments  while  they  listen  to  the  music.  We  go 
to  Margaret  Island  one  afternoon,  and  eat  our  supper 
under  the  trees  while  the  gypsy  band  plays.  This  island 
is  the  chief  pleasure  ground  of  Budapest.  It  makes  us 
think  of  the  Prater  in  Vienna,  for  there  are  many  peep 
shows,  concerts,  and  merry-go-rounds.  We  enjoy  ourselves 
in  strolling  along  the  fine  drives,  and  watching  the  chil- 
dren play  on  the  grass.  It  is  funny  to  see  the  babies 
carried  around  by  their  nurse  maids  on  pillows.  Each 
little  one  is  pinned  down  under  a  white  muslin  cloth  so 
that  it  cannot  raise  its  arms  or  even  kick  very  high.  The 
babies  wink  and  blink  as  we  look  at  them,  and  sometimes 
one  cries  out  in  fright  at  the  strange  Americans. 

Returning  to  the  city,  we  take  a  drive  through  the  wide 
Andrassy  Road,  a  boulevard  more  than  two  miles  in  length, 
lined  with  magnificent  pal- 
aces and  villas,  surrounded 
by  gardens.  We  visit  the 
Parliament  Houses,  the  mar- 
kets, and  the  great  picture 
galleries.  Budapest  has  pub- 
lic libraries,  a  university 
containing  more  than  four 
thousand  students,  and  all 
sorts  of  schools,  including 
kindergartens  for  children  of 
from  three  to  six  years. 

The  schools  of  Budapest 
are  conducted  in  the  Magyar 
language,  but  in  many  parts 
of  Hungary  other  languages 
are  used.  There  are  seventeen  different  peoples  living  in 
Hungary,  each  of  which  has  its  own  dialect,  so  that  it  is 


Peasants. 


300  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

difficult  for  even  a  Hungarian  to  make  himself  understood 
in  all  parts  of  his  country.  There  are  Magyars,  Slovaks, 
Roumanians,  Bulgarians,  Servians,  Germans,  Jews,  gypsies, 
and  many  others. 

The  Magyars  are  the  ruling  race,  and  they  own  the 
richest  parts  of  the  country.  They  originally  came  from 
Asia,  but  centuries  ago  made  their  way  up  the  Danube, 
and  settled  in  Hungary.  They  are  a  very  brave  people, 
patriotic  and  strong,  proud  and  hospitable.  They  are 
fond  of  titles,  and  children  are  taught  to  show  great  respect 
to  their  elders  as  well  as  to  one  another.  On  ceremonial 
occasions  a  child  addresses  its  father  as  Mr.  Father,  and 
its  mother  as  Mrs.  Mother.  The  oldest  brother  is  then 
called  Mr.  Elder  Brother,  and  the  oldest  sister  Miss  Elder 
Sister,  while  the  younger,  members  of  the  family  may  be 
Miss  Younger  Sister  and  Mr.  Younger  Brother. 

The  better  classes  of  the  Magyars  are  well  educated. 
The  rich  dress  in  costly  clothing,  the  court  costume  of 
the  men  being  a  satin  jacket  embroidered  with  gold,  tight- 
fitting  breeches,  and  top  boots  with  spurs,  to  which  are 
added  a  belt  of  gold  and  a  fur  cap,  sometimes  orna- 
mented with  precious  stones. 

The  dress  of  the  peasants  of  Hungary  varies  with  the 
locality.  We  see  strangely  clad  people  in  the  markets 
of  Budapest,  and  we  shall  meet  others  at  almost  every 
port,  as  we  go  on  down  the  Danube.  It  seems  queer  to 
see  women  wearing  top  boots,  but  we  grow  accustomed  to 
this  long  before  we  leave  Hungary.  The  women  of  many 
sections  have  on  boots  of  green,  red,  and  other  bright- 
colored  leather?,  which  reach  almost  to  their  knees.  They 
wear  short  skirts,  and  often  have  tight-fitting  waists  of 
different  colors,  and  aprons  which  are  beautifully  embroid- 
ered.    They  seldom  wear  bonnets,  and   frequently  have 


ON  THE  LOWER  DANUBE.  301 

nothing  at  all  on  their  heads.  In  some  places  their  hair 
is  braided  into  one  long  plait  interwoven  with  ribbons 
which  are  tied  in  a  bow  at  the  end. 

The  dress  of  the  peasant  men  is  as  odd  as  that  of  the 
women.  One  costume  consists  of  a  jacket  with  silver  or 
nickel  buttons,  a  bright  red  waistcoat  with  white  Hnen 
sleeves  of  great  width,  and  wide  fringed  drawers  which  are 
embroidered  with  red  and  green,  and  tucked  into  high  top 
boots.  In  the  winter  many  of  the  peasants  wear  sheep- 
skin coats  with  the  wool  inside,  and  in  the  summer  they 
sometimes  have  similar  coats  with  the  wool  showing. 

In  the  Carpathian  Mountains  are  the  Slovaks,  whose 
dress  is  somewhat  like  the  Magyars',  but  not  so  neat. 
They  wear  the  top  boots  and  wide  short  trousers,  but 
instead  of  a  waistcoat  they  have  a  broad  yellow  belt  a  yard 
wide  covered  with  buttons,  coins,  and  other  ornaments. 
These  people  have  large  hats,  and  woolen  coats  of  white 
embrofdered  in  red  and  green.  The  women  plait  ribbons 
in  their  hair,  and  then  tie  it  up  around  their  heads.  The 
gypsies  have  their  peculiar  costume,  and  so  have  the  peo- 
ple of  nearly  every  other  Hungarian  tribe. 


3j*;c 


XXXI.  ON  THE  LOWER  DANUBE  FROM 
BUDAPEST  TO  THE  BLACK  SEA. 

ALONG  the  lower  Danube  are  some  of  the  most  inter- 
esting parts  of  Europe.  The  river  flows  across  the 
great  plain  of  Hungary,  and  between  the  Transylvanian 
Alps,  and  the  Balkan  Mountains,  through  lands  inhabited 
by  strange  peoples,  many  of  which  are  little  civilized  and 
some  almost  unknown.     The  great  river  has  several  large 


302  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

tributaries  in  Hungary.  We  pass  the  mouth  of  the  Drave 
on  the  right,  and  that  of  the  Theiss  (tis)  on  the  left,  before 
reaching  the  Servian  boundary.  Both  rivers  are  filled 
with  shipping.  The  Theiss  has  hundreds  of  steamers, 
and  a  stream  of  grain  barges  and  lumber  rafts  is  always 
flowing  through  the  Francis  Canal,  which  has  been  cut 
from^that  river  across  to  the  Danube. 

We  are  intensely  interested  in  the  strange  sights  of  the 
Hungarian  plain.  The  country  reminds  us  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  Now  the  land  is  rolling  like  the  prairies  of 
Illinois  and  Iowa,  and  now  it  is  as  flat  as  Nebraska  and 
Kansas.  We  see  vast  crops  of  wheat,  corn,  rye,  oats,  and 
barley,  but  there  are  no  fences,  barns,  or  farmhouses 
standing  alone  on  the  landscape,  as  in  the  grain-growing 
parts  of  the  United  States. 

Now  we  are  passing  through  a  region  where  there  is 
nothing  but  wheat,  wheat,  wheat.  It  is  spread  out 
about  us  in  a  great  golden  ocean,  which  rises  and  falls 
in  billows  as  the  wind  sweeps  over  it.  We  see  more  and 
more  grain  as  we  go  on  with  our  journey.  We  are  travel- 
ing through  some  of  the  chief  bread  lands  of  Europe,  lands 
which  for  centuries  have  produced  the  finest  of  wheat,  and 
which  are  still  yielding  some  of  the  richest  crops  of  the 
world.  We  saw  something  of  the  product  in  the  great 
flour  mills  of  Budapest.  We  see  more  of  it  in  the  scores 
of  huge  barges  loaded  with  grain  which  are  steaming 
slowly  on  up  the  river.  Many  of  them  carry  as  much  as 
five  hundred  tons  of  wheat.  They  have  double  rudders, 
and  high  carved  red  and  blue  prows ;  some  are  roofed  over 
so  that  they  look  like  floating  houses.  Each  barge  has  a 
family  or  two  living  in  it,  and  the  children  sit  on  the  roofs 
and  stare  at  us  as  we  go  by.  See  that  barge  we  are  now 
passing ;  it  is  poled  and  rowed  along  by  men,  and  behind 


ON  THE  LOWER  DANUBE. 


303 


come  three  others  towed  by  a  steam  tug.  Some  of  the 
barges  have  their  own  engines  to  move  them.  There  are 
also  other  steam  vessels  laden  with  wheat,  and  in  fact  a 
steady  line  of  grain  ships  is  always  moving  to  and  fro  on 
the  Danube. 

There  on  the  right  are  barges  at  anchor.  I  mean  those 
two  not  far  from  the  shore,  with  the  great  wheel  between 
them.  See !  the  wheel  is  rapidly  turning,  moved  around 
by  the  swift-flowing  current.     That  is  one  of  the  famous 


I 


A  Floating  Flour  Mill. 

floating  flour  mills  of  the  Danube;  they  are  anchored  in 
it  here  and  there  throughout  the  wheat  belt.  The  large 
barge  contains  the  grinding  machinery,  which  is  moved 
by  the  paddle  wheel.  You  can  see  the  white-faced  miller 
in  his  dusty  clothes  standing  there  at  its  stern.  The 
small  barge  is  merely  a  support  for  the  other  end  of  the 
wheel. 

Now  look  beyond  the  mill  to  the  banks.  See  the  ox 
carts  which  are  coming  up  loaded  with  wheat.  There  on 
the  edge  of  the  water  men  are  throwing  the  bags  into  a 
boat ;  they  will  soon  row  them  out  to  the  mill,  and  when 
the  grain  has  been  ground,  will  take  back  the  flour.  By 
and  by  the  mill  may  be  floated  down  the  river  to  some 
other  wheat  region,  and  there  go  on  with  its  grinding. 


304 


SERVIA,   BULGARIA,   AND   ROUMANIA. 


See  that  town  farther  on  where  the  farmers  are  thresh- 
ing. It  has  stacks  of  straw  about  its  flat,  hard,  earthen 
threshing  floor.  The  men  are  pounding  the  grain  out  with 
flails.  At  one  side  they  are  driving  some  cattle  about  over 
the  wheat  that  the  beasts  may  tread  out  the  grain.  Such 
threshing  places  are  common  along  the  banks  of  the 
Danube.  The  people  bring  their  crops  to  one  place  and 
thresh  out  the  grain,  bagging  it  up  and  shipping  it  on  the 
barges  and  steamers  which  stop  there  for  cargo. 

We  see  similar  work  going  on  as  we  float  down  past 
Servia,  Bulgaria,  and  Roumania,  save  that  the  farming  is 
much  ruder  in  Servia  than  in  Hungary.  There  are  very 
few  reaping  and  mowing  machines  anywhere.     The  grain 

_    .      is  cut  with  scythes,  a  score 
^  '       "^  or    more    of    men   moving 

along  in  a  row  through  the 
fields,  while  as  many  women 
°^  follow  behind,  binding  the 
sheaves. 

Almost  as  important'  as 
the  grain  are  the  immense 
herds  of  horses,  pigs,  cattle, 
and  sheep  which  are  found 
everywhere  along  the  lower 
Danube  from  Budapest  to 
the  sea.  See  that  immense 
flock  of  sheep  over  there 
on  the  left  bank.  The  man 
standing  among  them,  lean- 
ing on  his  crook,  is  the  shepherd.  He  is  dressed  in  sheep- 
skin clothing,  and  wears  a  pair  of  high  boots.  Farther  on 
is  a  drove  of  hogs  watched  by  a  swineherd,  and  on  the 
opposite  bank  are  cattle  and  horses  under  the   care   of 


"He  is  dressed  in  sheepskin 
clothing." 


ON  THE  LOWER  DANUBE.  305 

Hungarian  cowboys.  Those  little  straw  huts  are  where 
they  take  shelter  in  stormy  weather. 

The  cowboys  of  the  Danube  are  quite  as  lively  as  those 
of  our  Western  plains.  They  are  high-spirited  fellows, 
and  when  they  come  into  town  for  a  holiday  they  discard 
their  sheepskin  jackets,  and  wear  the  gayest  of  clothing. 
They  have  silk  sashes  about  their  waists  and  overcoats 
embroidered  with  flowers,  while  their  hats  are  often  deco- 
rated with  ribbons.  They  are  proud  of  their  horses,  and 
on  such  occasions  ornament  them  with  tinkling  bells  and 
strips  of  bright  silk. 

The  towns  of  the  lower  Danube  are  as  queer  as  the 
country.  The  farmers  live  in  villages  and  go  out  to 
work  in  the  fields.  The  usual  village  is  composed  of  one 
long  street  in  which  there  are  benches  under  the  trees, 
where  the  people  sit  in  the  evening  and  gossip.  The 
women  knit  as  they  talk,  and  they  knit  even  when  they 
rest  at  their  work  in  the  fields.  Many  of  the  houses  are 
painted  white,  with  blue  doors  ;  their  roofs  are  of  red 
tiles  or  straw  thatch.  Each  house  has  a  fence  about  it, 
and  at  the  back  there  are  stables  with  ricks  of  grain  near 
them.  On  some  of  the  houses  the  storks  have  built  their 
nests,  and  we  now  and  then  see  storks  feeding  in  the 
mud  along  the  banks  of  the  river. 

We  float  past  the  mouth  of  the  Theiss  River  and  stay 
over  night  at  Belgrade,  the  capital  of  Servia,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Save.  The  Danube  forms  a  part  of  the 
boundary  between  Servia  and  Hungary,  and  for  the  next 
day  we  shall  travel  along  between  the  two  countries. 

Belgrade  is  situated  on  a  high  point  at  the  junction  of 

the  Save  and  the  Danube.     It  is  a  flat  town  of  yellowish 

white   houses,  which    look   bare    and    lonely  on  the  hills 

above  the   river.     We  take   a  walk  through   the  streets 

CARP.  EUROPE — 10 


3o6 


SERVIA,  BULGARIA,  AND   ROUMANIA. 


before  going  to  bed,  and  meet  many  men  in  fez  caps,  short 
jackets,  and  white  skirts  which  reach  to  their  knees.  Not 
a  few  carry  knives  and  pistols  in  their  belts,  and  we 
wonder  if  it  would  not  be  dangerous  for  us  to  go  about 


mm'-P'- 


T"'*^.^  ^^•.-■ 


.M-^. 
}^^^ 


"We  stay  over  night  at  Belgrade." 

alone  after  dark.  There  are  also  people  dressed  as  we 
are,  and  Turks  wearing  turbans  or  caps  of  red  fez,  and 
full  baggy  trousers. 

Not  only  Servia,  but  also  Roumania  and  Bulgaria  and 
other  countries  of  this  part  of  Europe,  have  until  recently 
belonged  to  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  we  shall  see  more 
and  more  Turks  as  we  travel  on  southward.  Belgrade 
has  Mohammedan  mosques,  and  so  have  most  of  the 
other  towns  and  cities  of  the  Balkan  peninsula. 

But  who  are  those  fine-looking,  queerly-dressed  men 
coming  toward  us  ?     They  have  dark  faces,  long  hair,  and 


ON  THE  LOWER  DANUBE.  307 

long  bushy  beards.  They  wear  tall  black  caps  and  black 
robes  with  wide  sashes  of  blue.  Those  are  priests  of 
the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  the  reHgion  most  common 
in  this  part  of  the  world.  It  is  the  principal  religion  of 
Servia,  Bulgaria,  and  Roumania,  and  also  of  Russia  and 
Greece.  We  shall  see  many,  many  priests  as  we  go  on 
with  our  travels. 

Servia  and  Roumania  are  now  independent  countries. 
Each  has  its  own  king  and  a  Parliament  elected  by  the 
people,  and  each  is  rapidly  growing  in  intelligence  and 
prosperity.  Bulgaria  is  also  practically  free,  for  it  elects 
its  own  prince  and  Parliament,  although  the  Sultan  of 
Turkey  must  confirm  the  election  of  the  prince.  Servia 
is  a  little  larger  than  our  two  states  of  Vermont  and  New 
Hampshire  ;  Roumania  is  larger*  than  New  York,  and  Bul- 
garia is  just  about  the  size  of  West  Virginia.  The  chief 
business  of  all  these  countries  is  agriculture  and  stock 
raising,  although  there  is  some  manufacturing,  which  will 
probably  be  increased  in  the  future,  as  there  are  coal,  iron, 
and  other  minerals  in  the  mountains. 

We  are  on  the  edge  of  the  mountains  at  Belgrade,  and 
we  float  in  and  out  through  the  hills  as  we  go  on  with  our 
journey.  The  Danube  narrows  and  widens.  There  are 
many  rapids,  and  now  and  then  we  pass  through  great 
canyons.  We  steam  slowly  through  the  gorge  of  Kazan, 
where  the  cliffs  rise  above  us  for  hundreds  of  feet,  and 
where  it  looks  as  though  the  rocks  were  torn  apart 
to  let  the  great  river  through. 

We  say  good-by  to  Hungary  at  the  lively  town  of 
Orsova  (6r-so'v6),  the  last  steamer  station  of  that  country 
on  the  Danube,  and  then  go  on  through  the  famed  Iron 
Gate  to  the  smoother  waters  below.  The  Iron  Gate  is  one 
of  the  most  dangerous  places  in  the  course  of  this  mighty 


3o8 


SERVIA.   BULGARIA.   AND    ROUMANIA. 


river.  It  is  a  ledge  of  gigantic  tooth-shaped  rocks,  about 
a  mile  wide,  which  almost  fills  the  Danube.  The  tops  of 
the  rocks  rise  high  above  the  surface  when  the  river  is 
low,  and  the  water  seethes  and  foams  as  it  dashes  over 
them.  Hundreds  of  steamers  have  been  wrecked  on  the 
Iron  Gate,  and  for  ages  it  has  been  a  great  obstruction  to 
navigation.  Within  the  past  few  years  a  canal  has  been 
cut  through  it,  and  now  ordinary  ships  can  easily  pass. 


The  Iron  Gate. 

Our  journey  for  a  short  time  after  leaving  the  Iron  Gate 
is  between  Roumania  and  Servia,  and,  farther  on,  through 
Roumania  and  Bulgaria,  between  which  countries  the 
Danube  flows  on  and  on,  until  it  branches  out  into  several 
mouths  and  empties  into  the  Black  Sea,  on  the  edge  of  the 
great  Russian  Empire. 

There  are   more  signs  of  thrift  in  Bulgaria  and  Rou- 


ON  THE   LOWER   DANUBE.  309 

mania  than  in  Servia.  The  countries  are  richer,  Roumania 
having  some  of  the  richest  wheat  fields  of  the  European 
continent,  while  Bulgaria  exports  a  vast  deal  of  Indian 
corn.  The  people  here  wear  better  clothes  than  in  Servia, 
and  they  seem  to  be  more  prosperous  and  more  enterpris- 
ing. Both  the  Roumanians  and  the  Bulgarians  are  noted 
for  their  intelligence  and  thrift,  and  the  Roumanians 
especially  are  a  fine-looking  race,  the  women  being  famous 
for  their  beauty. 

At  the  Roumanian  ports,  gypsy  bands  come  to  the 
boats  and  play  for  us.  Roumania  is  the  home  of  the 
gypsies,  although  they  form  but  a  small  part  of  the  popu- 
lation. They  have  always  been  a  wandering  people,  living 
in  covered  wagons  and  moving  about  over  the  country. 
They  have  curious  customs  and  many  a  band  has  its  gypsy 
queen. 

Some  of  the  gypsies  tell  fortunes.  They  also  do  manu- 
facturing in  a  small  way,  and  many  are  tinkers,  blacksmiths, 
and  horse  traders.  In  the  past  they  have  been  despised 
and  ill  treated,  but  they  now  are  better  off  in  this  part  of 
the  world  on  account  of  the  love  of  the  people  for  music. 
The  Roumanian  gypsies  are  natural  mu'^icians.  Even  the 
smaller  of  the  gypsy  children  play  the  violin,  and  the  gypsy 
bands  are  in  demand  almost  everywhere.  Many  of  the 
gypsies  leave  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  and  we  find  them 
in  all  parts  of  Europe  and  even  in  the  United  States. 

We  end  our  journey  on  the  Danube  at  Rustchuk,  from 
where  we  make  a  side  trip  to  the  fine  large  city  of  Bucha- 
rest, the  capital  of  Bulgaria,  and  then  take  train  for 
Varna  on  the  Black  Sea,  where  we  get  a  ship  for  Odessa, 
in  Russia. 


ursk  f,^ 


.  6»** 


lomi 


_^  si;ft''"X'^"l  Bug»T^>^  fc^re!' 


Togoisk 


Tsariti 


^)? 


^ht\ 


O    1 V        -  Sea 


'^— Cez 


S£^ 


'■?.< 


v_ 


i         RUSSIA 

SCALE  OF  MILES 
I  6        100       200      300       400 


30  Longitude  East  40  from  Greenwich         60 


(3IO) 


IN   ODESSA.  311 

XXXII.     IN   ODESSA  — GENERAL  VIEW 
OF   RUSSIA. 

GET  out  your  passports  and  have  your  keys  ready ! 
We  are  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Odessa,  and  the 
Russian  officials  are  coming  aboard.  There  they  are  now, 
just  inside  the  gangway,  those  big,  black-bearded  men  in 
long  coats  and  black  caps  with  the  soldiers  beside  them ! 
We  shall  have  to  show  them  papers  from  our  government 
describing  just  who  we  are,  before  they  will  permit  us  to 
land.  This  custom  is  universal  in  Russia.  All  who  enter 
the  empire  must  have  passports,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
travel  through  the  interior  without  them.  We  shall  be 
asked  for  our  passports  at  every  hotel,  and  our  names  will 
be  registered  at  the  police  stations  wherever  we  stop.  We 
may  need  them  when  we  buy  tickets  on  the  railway,  and 
also  at  the  post  and  telegraph  offices.  Even  the  natives 
•must  have  passports  when  they  leave  home,  for  records  are 
kept  of  the  strangers  in  every  town,  so  that  it  is  said  the 
Czar  knows  just  where  every  man  in  his  empire  sleeps 
every  night. 

We  need  our  keys  to  open  our  baggage,  that  the 
officers  may  see  that  there  are  no  books  or  papers  in  it 
containing  articles  against  the  government,  and  also  that 
we  are  not  smuggling  goods  into  the  country.  The  Rus- 
sian Empire  is  so  vast  and  it  has  so  many  different  kinds 
of  people  that  it  is  difficult  for  one  man  to  rule  it.  It  has 
some  citizens  who  would  like  to  overthrow  the  government, 
and  for  this  reason  the  officials  are  always  on  guard. 

Our  passports,  however,  show  that  we  are  good  American 
citizens.  We  are  treated  poHtely.  The  officials  merely 
look  into  our   trunks,  and  within  a  short   time   we   have 


312 


RUSSIA. 


received  permission  to  enter  the  city  and  are  riding  in  our 
droskies  over  the  paved  streets  of  Odessa  to  the  hotel.  How- 
strange  everything  is!  We  seem  to  be  in  a  new  world. 
The  people  are  different,  and  even  the  horses  look  queer, 
as  they  trot  along  with  great  yokes  above  them,  draw- 
ing all  sorts  of  odd  vehi- 
cles. Notice  the  drosky 
in  which  we  are  riding ; 
It  is  about  half  as  big 
as  one  of  our  carriages ; 
its  wheels  are  no  larger 
than  those  of  a  bicycle, 
and  its  floor  is  about  a 
foot  from  the  ground. 
A  big  black  horse  is 
harnessed  to  the  shafts. 


Drosky. 


which  end  at  the  front  in  a  yoke  rising  a  foot  and  a  half 
above  his  neck.  There  are  no  tugs ;  the  shafts  are 
fastened  to  the  collar  just  under  the  yoke. 

What  an  odd-looking  driver !  He  weighs  about  three 
hundred  pounds,  and  his  long  navy  blue  gown,  tied  with  a 
red  sash  at  the  waist,  makes  him  look  bigger.  His  hat 
is  bell-shaped,  and  his  long  black  beard  hangs  far  down 
on  his  breast.  He  is  proud  of  his  siz;e,  for  to  have  a  fat 
coachman  is  the  sign  of  prosperity;  and  it  is  said  that 
many  of  the  gowns  of  the  drosky  drivers  are  padded  and 
quilted,  and  that  some  even  have  little  pillows  inside  them 
to  make  their  owners  look  fat.  Our  man  holds  his  arms 
straight  out  in  front  of  him  as  he  drives.  He  slaps  the 
horse  with  the  reins  to  make  him  go  faster,  and  stops  him 
by  saying  **  burr-r  "  instead  of  "  whoa." 

Now  look  at  the  people  on  the  streets.  What  a  variety 
of  curious  costumes  1    Odessa  is  the  chief  city  of  southern 


IN  ODESSA. 


313 


Russia,  and  men  from  all  the  countries  about  come  here  to 
trade.  There  are  Turks  and  Armenians  in  fez  caps  and 
dark  clothes  ;  there  are  Greek  sailors  wearing  gay  jackets, 
white  petticoats,  and  red  shoes  turned  up  at  the  toes  ; 
there  are  fierce-looking  Circassians  in  high  caps  of  astra- 
khan fur,  and  merchants 
from  Persia  in  turbans 
and  gowns.  There  are 
I  Russians  everywhere. 
We  know  them  by  their 
big  frames  and  fine  faces. 
The  men  are  tall  and 
broad  -  shouldered,  and 
most  of  them  have  long, 
thick  beards.  The  women 
are  tall,  handsome,  and 
Statelv  Manv  are  verv  "^^^^  ^  variety  of  curious  costumes!  " 
well  dressed,  although  the  peasant  women  wear  rough 
shoes,  bright  cotton  gowns,  and  have  handkerchiefs  bound 
around  their  heads. 

What  a  lot  of  caps,  long  coats,  and  top  boots.  Every 
man  and  boy  is  thus  clad.  The  soldiers  wear  caps,  the 
officers  wear  caps,  and  so  do  the  common  people ;  even 
little  boys  have  visored  caps  and  overcoats  just  like  their 
fathers',  and  some  very  little  girls  wear  caps  of  bright  silk. 

How  queer  the  stores  are.  The  signs  are  in  the  strange 
Russian  letters,  so  different  from  ours  that  we  cannot  tell 
what  they  mean.  There  is  a  newsboy  crying  his  papers. 
The  printing  upon  them  looks  as  strange  as  the  Chinese 
characters  on  tea  boxes,  and  we  cannot  understand  the 
jargon  he  utters.  We  can't  talk  even  with  our  driver,  and 
are  glad  when  we  reach  the  hotel,  where  the  porter  speaks 
English.     He  acts  as  our  interpreter,  giving  us  our  rooms 


314 


RUSSIA. 


and  arranging  our  meals.  Next  day  we  take  a  guide  and 
explore  Odessa.  It  is  the  chief  grain  port  of  south  Rus- 
sia, and  has  a  vast  trade.  We  visit  the  wharves  and  the 
chief  business  sections,  and  then  take  the  train  for  our 
long  ride  through  Russia  in  Europe. 


Palace  of  Justice,  Odessa. 

Russia  is  by  far  the  largest  country  in  Europe,  and  one 
of  the  largest  of  the  whole  world.  The  Russians  have 
more  land  than  any  other  nation  except  the  British. 
They  own  more  than  half  of  all  Europe,  and  considerably 
more  than  one  third  of  all  Asia.  Their  possessions  in 
Asia  are  almost  as  big  as  the  whole  of  South  America, 
and  in  Europe  they  have  two  thirds  as  much  land  as  the 
United  States  without  Alaska,  the  Philippines,  and  Porto 
Rico.  Altogether  they  have  more  than  one  seventh  of  all 
the  land  surface  of  the  globe. 

Our  travels  at  present  are  to  be  confined  to  Russia  in 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RUSSIA. 


315 


Europe,  and  even  this  is  so  vast,  as  we  see  by  the  space  it 
has  on  the  map,  that  we  might  travel  a  year  and  not  visit 
every  part  of  it.  Still,  a  rapid  run  through  it,  stopping  in 
the  great  cities,  and  spending  some  time  in  the  villages 
and  on  the  farms,  will  give  us  a  good  idea  of  the  country 
and  people. 

Let  us  first  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  European  Russia. 
It  consists  of  a  vast  plain  hemmed  in  by  the  Ural 
Mountains  on  the  east,  and  by  the  Baltic  Sea,  Germany, 
Austria-Hungary,  and  Roumania  on  the  west,  extending 
from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Black  Sea  and  Caspian  Sea, 
and  nowhere  having  any  hills  over  eleven  hundred  feet 
high.  The  chief  hills,  except  those  at  the  extreme  south, 
lie  just  north  of  the  center  of  Russia,  where  the  land  rises, 
making  a  watershed  from  which  the  rivers  flow  north  and 
south,  furnishing  water  to  the  most  of  the  plain,  and  giving 
a  cheap  means  of  carrying 
goods  from  one  part  of  it  to 
another.  Many  of  the  rivers 
are  connected  by  canals,  and, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  the 
country  has  an  excellent 
system  of  commercial  water 
ways. 

If  a  bird  should  start  at 
the  Arctic  Ocean  and  fly 
clear  across  Russia  to  get 
the  view  we  are  taking,  it 
would  start  upon  a  coast 
which  is  bordered  with  vast 
morasses  or  cold  swamps 
called  tundras.  Everything  there  is  bleak  and  dreary,  the 
trees  are  stunted,  and  the  only  human  beings  to  be  seen 


"  —  live  in  bark  tents." 


3l6  RUSSIA. 

are  the  strange  Lapps  and  Samoyedes,  semisavages  with 
Ught  yellow  faces,  high  cheek  bones  and  eyes  somewhat 
slanting.  They  live  in  bark  tents  and  look  not  unlike  the 
Laplanders  we  saw  in  Norway,  and  they  have  much  the 
same  habits,  roaming  about  with  their  reindeer,  grazing  them 
on  the  mosses  and  the  lichens  which  grow  on  the  tundras. 

Passing  this  region,  the  bird  would  fly  southward  for 
hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  miles  over  vast  forests.  It 
would  go  for  days  over  nothing  but  trees,  trees,  trees. 
Now  and  then  it  might  see  a  bear,  a  deer,  or  a  wolf,  but 
seldom  anything  human.  In  this  forest  zone  of  Russia 
there  are  thousands  of  square  miles  which  are  entirely 
uninhabited,  where  there  are  no  railroads,  and  where  all 
nature  is  as  wild  as  it  was  in  our  country  in  the  days  when 
the  Indians  owned  it.  At  the  north  the  trees  are  chiefly 
stunted  pines,  but  farther  south  there  are  magnificent 
beeches,  firs,  and  other  valuable  timber.  The  forests 
cover  two  fifths  of  the  country,  extending,  with  some 
clearings  here  and  there  even  as  far  south  as  Moscow. 

Coming  out  of  the  trees  our  bird  would  next  pass  over  a 
well-populated  region  which  produces  vast  quantities  of 
barley,  flax,  and  hemp,  and  then  enter  the  third  zone,  the 
famous  black  earth  zone  of  Russia.  This  is  a  vast  plain 
which  stretches  from  the  Carpathian  Mountains  clear 
across  to  the  Urals,  and  which  is  covered  with  some  of  the 
richest  soil  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  The  land  is  a  thick 
sheet  of  black  earth,  a  sort  of  half  mold,  from  three  to 
twenty  feet  deep,  so  rich  that  it  has  yielded  good  crops  of 
wheat  for  many  generations  without  fertilization.  This  is 
the  best  part  of  Russia  and  the  chief  source  of  its  wealth, 
producing  large  quantities  of  grain  for  export.  The  coun- 
try here  is  well  populated.  It  has  cities  and  towns  and 
countless  farm  villages. 


i 


i 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  RUSSIA.  317 

Beyond  this  there  are  lands  producing  Indian  corn,  and 
farther  south,  bordering  on  the  edge  of  the  Caucasus 
Mountains  and  the  Black  and  the  Caspian  seas,  are  other 
plains,  or  steppes,  which  are  not  so  rich,  but  upon  which 
wild  grasses  grow  in  great  luxuriance,  where  vast  herds  of 
horses,  cattle,  and  sheep  are  to  be  seen.  Such  is  a  rough 
idea  of  European  Russia :  great  flat  plains  of  cold  swamps, 
of  mighty  forests,  of  rich  farms  and  pastures,  of  a  few 
large  cities,  and  a  vast  number  of  villages. 

We  shall  visit  the  chief  cities  later  on.  Odessa  is  about 
as  large  as  Cleveland ;  Kief  just  north  of  it,  on  the  Dnieper, 
surrounded  by  a  rich  farming  country,  is  almost  as  big  as 
Detroit ;  Warsaw  in  Poland  is  bigger  than  St.  Louis ;  and 
Riga,  the  grain  port  of  the  Baltic,  is  of  about  the  size  of 
Newark,  New  Jersey.  St.  Petersburg  has  as  many  peo- 
ple as  Philadelphia,  and  Moscow  is  almost  as  large.  In 
addition  to  these  important  places,  there  are  other  cities 
ranging  in  size  from  three  hundred  thousand  to  fifty  thou- 
sand, and  there  are  many  still  smaller. 

But  we  shall  see  all  this  better  as  we  go  on  with  our 
travels.  Russia  has  the  longest  railroads  in  the  world,  and 
there  are  steamers  on  all  the  chief  rivers,  so  that  we  can 
visit  the  principal  parts  of  the  country.  Our  train  from 
Odessa  takes  us  rapidly  northward.  The  road  is  smooth 
and  well  built ;  the  track  is  as  well  kept  as  our  gardens. 
We  often  see  women  on  their  knees  pulling  the  grass 
from  between  the  ties,  and  every  few  miles  there  are  men 
working  on  the  railroad. 

At  each  road  crossing  a  barefooted,  bareheaded  peas- 
ant girl  in  a  dress  of  bright  colors  stands  waving  a  flag 
to  warn  the  people  back  while  the  train  passes ;  and 
at  every  station  a  tall  guard  in  uniform,  with  a  pistol  on 
his  hip  and  a  long  sword  at  his  side,  walks  up  and  down 


3l8  RUSSIA. 

the  platform.  He  is  the  representative  of  the  Czar,  and 
he  wears  the  Czar's  uniform :  a  red  cap  with  a  tall  feather 
in  it,  a  long  overcoat,  and  high  boots  with  spurs. 

There  are  many  things  about  the  trains  t-hat  are  dif- 
ferent from  ours.  Look  out  as  we  go  around  this  curve, 
and  see  the  dense  black  smoke  pouring  out  of  the  engine. 
That  comes  from  the  petroleum  which  is  used  as  fuel, 
because  the  oil  fields  about  the  Caspian  Sea  make  it 
cheaper  than  coal  in  this  treeless  region.  Farther  north, 
in  the  forest  zone,. the  smoke  will  become  a  light  blue,  for 
our  locomotive  will  make  steam  with  wood.  We  shall  have 
great  racks  filled  with  wood  just  back  of  the  engine  ;  it 
will  keep  two  firemen  busy  throwing  it  into  the  furnaces, 
while  at  every  few  stations  we  shall  see  acres  of  wood 
piles. 

Our  cars  are  by  no  means  uncomfortable.  We  are 
riding  first  class  on  an  express  train.  We  have  seats  near 
the  windows,  and  our  fellow  passengers  are  officials  and 
well-to-do  Russians,  many  of  whom  speak  English  and 
tell  us  much  of  their  country  and  people. 

Every  now  and  then  we  pass  a  slower  train,  largely 
composed  of  second  and  third  class  cars.  The  second 
class  cars  are  more  cheaply  furnished  than  those  of  the 
first  class ;  they  are  patronized  by  the  merchants  and  the 
richer  of  the  common  people.  The  third  class  cars  are 
not  much  better  than  cattle  cars.  The  seats  are  rude 
benches,  and  they  are  crowded  with  peasants. 

Notice  that  train  which  is  waiting  there  on  the  side 
track!  It  is  filled  with  long-bearded,  shock-haired  men 
in  rough  cotton  clothes,  and  with  women  in  short  cotton 
gowns  of  bright  colors,  with  shawls  and  handkerchiefs 
tied  around  their  heads.  The  men  wear  caps,  and  they 
have  boots  of  felt  or  leather;  the  shoes  of  many  of  the 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF   RUSSIA. 


319 


women  are  of  straw,  and  in  place  of  stockings  they  have 
rags  tied  around  their  legs.  Each  man  has  a  great  bundle 
beside  him  or  under  his  feet ;  that  is  his  baggage.  In  the 
third  class  the  most  of  the  baggage  is  taken  into  the  cars. 
At  some  of  the  depots  we  see  the  people  using  their  bundles 
as  pillows,  sleeping  on  the  stones  while  they  wait  for  the 
train. 

Take  a  look  at  the  station  where  our  train  is  stopping. 
It  has  a  stone  platform,  and  the  building  is  large  and  well 
kept ;  that  bell  against  the  wall  is  for  starting  the  train. 
The  station  has  an  excellent  restaurant.  The  Russians 
are  fond  of  good  living.  They  are  always  eating ;  and 
tea,  cake,  and  fruit  are  brought  to  our  window  at  every 
station. 

The  tea  is  served  in  glass  tumblers,  with  two  or  three 
lumps  of  sugar  and  a  slice  of  lemon,  but  without  milk.  We 
try  to  drink  it  in  the  approved 
Russian  fashion.  We  squeeze 
the  lemon  into  the  tea,  and  then, 
putting  the  hard  sugar  lump  be- 
tween our  teeth,  slowly  suck  the 
tea  through  it.  It  tastes  good, 
but  we  soon  go  back  to  our  old 
way  of  drinking,  for  the  custom 
ruins  the  teeth,  and  we  notice 
that  many  Russians  on  this  ac- 
count have  teeth  which  are  badly 
decayed.  The  Russians  drink 
more  tea  perhaps  than  any  other 
people,  and  every  family  has  its 
samovar  filled  with  hot  water. 
The  samovar  is  a  brass  urn  with  a  pipe  running  through  its 
center,  in  which  burning  charcoal  keeps  the  water  hot,  so 


The  Russians  drink  more 
tea  perhaps  than  any  other 
people." 


320  RUSSIA. 

that,  by  turning  a  spigot,  fresh  tea  can  be  made  at  any 
time  of  the  day.  There  are  samovars  at  all  the  stations, 
and  the  tea  peddlers  behind  them 
are  long-haired,  long-bearded  men, 
with  faces  as  rosy,  fat,  and  jolly  as 
old  Santa  Claus. 

We  are  a  long  time  crossing  the 
steppes  of  southern  Russia.  We 
pass  vast  herds  of  cattle  and  horses 
watched  by  Russian  cowboys,  and 
see  large  flocks  of  sheep,  some  of 
which  are  tended  by  women  and 
A  Samovar.  children.     Now  we  go  through  a  re- 

gion of  vineyards,  and  again  through  fields  of  Indian  corn, 
barley,  and  rye. 

As  we  travel  northward,  the  country  grows  better  and 
the  land  more  densely  populated,  until  at  last  we  reach 
the  black  earth  zone.  We  are  now  in  the  granary  of 
Russia,  which  produces  a  large  part  of  the  food  of  the 
empire,  and  which  in  good  seasons  grows  so  much  wheat 
that  it  forms  our  chief  competitor  in  the  food  markets  of 
Europe. 

XXXIII.     THE   RUSSIAN   PEASANTS  — A 
NATION   OF  VILLAGES. 

WE  are  now  in  the  great  black  plain,  in  one  of  the 
regions  where  we  can  best  study  the  people  of 
Russia.  This  vast  empire  may  be  compared  to  a  huge 
farm ;  for  the  Russians  are  largely  a  nation  of  farmers. 
The  Russian  people  are  made  up  of  the  emperor  and  his 
officials,  of  comparatively   few  nobles,  of   a  few  million 


THE  RUSSIAN  PEASANTS.  321 

merchants  and  artisans  who  dwell  in  the  cities,  and  a 
vast  number  of  peasants,  living  in  villages  surrounded  by 
farms.  The  most  important  part  of  Russia  is  village 
Russia.  The  country  contains*  about  one  hundred  mil- 
lion  peasants,   who   live   in    five    hundred    thousand   vil- 


A  Peasant  Family. 

lages.  Let  us  stop  a  moment  and  try  to  realize  what  this 
means.  There  are  so  many  of  these  peasants  that  if  all 
the  men,  women,  and  children  of  all  the  world  could  be 
gathered  into  one  place,  one  in  every  fifteen  would  be 'a 
Russian  peasant  farmer. 

In  our  ride  to  the  black  earth  zone  from  Odessa  we  have 
not  seen  a  single  house  by  itself  in  the  fields.     There  were 


322  RUSSIA. 

no  fences  marking  off  the  farms  as  in  America,  and  no 
barns  nor  haystacks  standing  alone.  Excepting  the  cow- 
boys and  the  shepherdesses  watching  the  flocks,  we  did 
not  see  a  person  alone  in  the  fields.  The  people  were 
working  in  gangs  of  from  half  a  dozen  to  a  hundred, 
going  out  together  in  the  morning,  and  coming  back  in  the 
same  way  at  night.  At  every  few  miles  we  passed  little 
groups  of  thatched  huts,  and  we  could  see  other  huts  in 
groups  dotting  the  country  on  both  sides  the  track.  '  Each 
collection  of  huts  was  a  Russian  village,  a  type  of  the 
thousands  of  villages  in, all  parts  of  European  Russia,  and 
even  in  the  newest  settlements  of  Siberia  as  well. 

But  let  us  get  off  at  this  station  and  visit  one  of  the 
villages.  That  man  over  there  in  the  long  overcoat,  cap, 
high  boots,  and  sword  is  the  government  guard.  He  puts 
his  hand  to  his  cap  and  makes  a  military  salute  as  we 
accost  him.  He  gives  our  guide  the  proper  directions, 
ar^d  within  a  short  time  we  are  driving  at  full  speed  over 
the  fields. 

Our  vehicle  is  a  sort  of  boatlike  tub  on  wheels,  to  which 
three  houses  are  fastened.  One  horse  is  inside  the  shafts, 
and.  the  others,  one  on  each  side,  are  hitched  to  bars  which 
extend  from  the  ends  of  the  axle  of  the  front  wheels.  The 
carriage  and  team  look  sorry  enough,  and  we  get  in  with 
much  fear  and  trembling.  We  have  hardly  taken  our 
seats,  however,  before  the  driver  cracks  his  whip,  and  the 
horses  go  off  at  great  speed.  The  one  in  the  shafts  trots 
at  a  four-minute  pace,  and  those  outside  go  on  the  gallop, 
so  that  we  fairly  fly  through  the  air. 

The  road  is  right  over  the  fields,  and  we  drive  through 
green  and  yellow  oceans  of  rye  and  wheat,  which  are  mov- 
ing up  and  down  in  billows  under  the  winds.  We  cross 
long  fields  of  yellow  sunflowers,  and  go  on  through  meadows 


THE   RUSSIAN   PEASANTS. 


323 


I 


where  hundreds  of  sheep  are  feeding,  watched  by  shepherds 
who  lean  on  their  staffs  and  gaze  at  us  in  wonder. 

At  last  we  come  to  our  village.  It  has  but  one  long 
street  lined  with  straggling  thatched  huts.  There  are  no 
sidewalks,  and  the  street  is  a  wide  grass  plot,  except  in  the 
middle,  where  the  carts  have  cut  deep  ruts  in  the  earth. 
There  are  trees  here  .and  there  on  each  side  of  the  roadway. 
Under  one  of  them  a  woman  is  knitting,  with  her  chil- 
dren about  her ;  she  has  tied  a  box  in  which  lies  her  baby 
to  one  of  the  branches 
above  her,  and  she  swings 
it  now  and  then  as  she 
works.  Farther  down  on 
the  other  side  of  the 
street  are  some  frowsy- 
headed,  bare-footed  boys 
and  girls  playing.  As  we 
stop,  they  stand  and  stare 
at  us,  while  the  dogs  run 
out  and  bark,  showing 
their  teeth. 

Take  a  look  at  the  huts ! 
Few  of  them  have  gar- 
dens about  them.  There 
are  no  fences  to  shut  them 
off  from  their  neighbors  or  from  the  road.  The  average 
home  is  a  one-story  log  cabin,  about  twenty  feet  square, 
roofed  with  straw  thatch  about  a  foot  and  a  half  thick. 
Where  wood  is  scarce  the  huts  are  often  made  of  woven 
twigs  plastered  with  mud.  A  few  of  the  larger  houses 
have  barns  or  stables  joined  to  them  in  an  L  at  the  rear, 
so  that  the  animals  and  people  live  under  the  same  roof. 

Let  us  enter  one  of  the  little  homes !     They  are  all  made 

CARP.    EUROPE  —  20 


she  swings  it  now  and  then  as 
she  works." 


324 


RUSSIA. 


the  same  way,  each  having  two  rooms  and  a  loft.  We  first 
go  into  an  anteroom  which  is  used  as  a  storeroom  and  stable. 
There  is  harness  hanging  upon  the  walls,  farming  tools  lie 
upon  the  floor,  and  bags  of  corn  are  piled  up  in  a  corner. 
A  chicken  runs  between  our  legs  as  we  enter,  and  a  calf 
at  the  back  looks  as  though  it  might  do  the  same. 


"The  average  home  is  a  one-story  log  cabin." 

Passing  through  this  room,  we  reach  the  other  room  of 
the  house.  Indeed,  it  might  be  called  the  only  room,  for  the 
first  is  little  more  than  a  vestibule,  while  this  room  serves 
as  kitchen,  dining  room,  bedroom,  and  parlor.  At  one  side 
of  it  there  is  a  brick  stove,  or  oven  and  chimney  combined, 
so  built  up  from  the  floor  that  there  is  a  ledge  four  feet  wide 


THE   RUSSIAN   PEASANTS. 


325 


—  this  room  serves  as  kitchen,  dining  room, 
bedroom,  and  parlor." 


and  about  six  feet  long  just  over  the  oven  and  under  the 
ceiling.  In  the  oven  the  cooking  is  done,  and  that  ledge 
above  it  is  the  common  bed  of  the  family.  There  in  the 
winter  as  many  as  can  crawl  in  and  sleep  on  the  hot  bricks, 
while  the  others  lie 
on  the  floor.  There 
are  no  beds,  and. 
little  or  no  bed  cloth- 
ing. The  whole  fam- 
ily huddle  together 
like  so  many  sheep  : 
men  and  women, 
boys  and  girls, 
babies  and  grand- 
parents, all  bunched 
in  together.  They 
sleep  in  the  same  clothes  they  wear  in  the  daytime,  and 
rely  largely  upon  their  own  animal  heat  and  the  oven  to 
keep  themselves  warm. 

As  we  enter,  our  host  asks  us  to  be  seated,  and  we  look 
around  for  chairs.  There  are  only  two  to  be  seen,  but  we 
take  seats  on  the  benches  which  run  around  the  wall. 
There  is  a  bare  table  at  one  side  of  the  room,  and  the  man 
asks  us  to  stay  and  have  dinner  with  him.  We  do  so,  and 
watch  his  wife  lay  the  table.  She  does  this  very  quickly, 
for  they  use  no  tablecloth,  and  no  plates,  knives,  nor  forks. 
All  she  does  is  to  put  a  wooden  basin,  about  as  big  as  a 
common  tin  washbasin,  filled  with  cabbage  soup,  in  the 
center  of  the  board,  and  lay  some  wooden  spoons  beside 
it.  We  are  hungry  after  our  jolting  ride  over  the  fields, 
and  the  soup  gives  forth  an  appetizing  odor  as  it  smokes 
away  on  the  table.  The  woman  now  motions  us  to  draw 
up  our  benches.     We  sit  down  with  the  family.     We  are 


326  RUSSIA. 

each  given  a  wooden  spoon  about  as  big  as  the  largest 
tablespoon,  and  are  told  to  dip  in.  We  are  at  a  loss  how- 
to  begin  until  our  host  puts  in  his  spoon  and  conveys  some 
soup  to  his  mouth.  We  do  likewise,  each  dipping  in  turn 
until  the  basin  is  empty.  In  addition  to  the  soup  we  each 
have  black  bread  and  raw  cucumbers.  There  is  no  butter, 
and  the  meal  seems  plain  and  scanty,  after  our  luxurious  liv- 
ing at  the  Russian  hotels.  Still,  such  is  the  common  every- 
day food  of  millions  of  Russians.  Some  of  the  peasants 
have  cows  and  chickens,  and  hence  milk  and  eggs.  Now 
and  then  they  may  have  a  little  fish  or  meat,  but  as  a  rule, 
if  they  have  cabbage  soup  and  bread,  they  think  they  do 
very  well.  We  are  surprised  to.  find  how  many  people 
live  in  one  hut ;  sometimes  as  many  as  twelve  live  in  one 
room. 

The  most  of  the  Russian  peasants  are  poor  and  very 
few  save  money.  They  do  not  seem  to  care  for  the  future, 
and  live  from  hand  to  mouth ;  so  that  if  a  bad  season 
occurs,  a  famine  ensues  and  they  die  by  the  thousand.  If 
you  tell  them  they  should  save,  for  bad  times  may  come, 
they  will  say,  "  Oh  !  God  and  the  Czar  will  provide  !  " 

The  Russian  peasants  have  but  few  wants.  If  a  man 
has  a  suit  of  sheepskin  for  the  winter  and  of  cotton  for 
the  summer,  with  perhaps  an  extra  suit  for  Sundays  and 
holidays,  he  is  quite  content.  In  the  hot  weather  he  wears 
a  red  calico  shirt  outside  his  white  or  blue  cotton  trousers. 
The  trousers  are  fastened  by  a  string  around  the  waist,  and 
are  often  bound  in  just  below  the  knees  with  rags,  which, 
wrapped  round  and  round  the  legs  and  feet,  serve  also  for 
stockings.  The  richer  peasants  wear  leather  boots  and 
long  overcoats  of  cloth  or  skin.  The  poor  have  felt 
boots  for  winter,  and  slippers  of  woven  grass  or  bark  for 
summer.     The  woman's  dress  consists  chiefly  of  a  bright- 


THE  RUSSIAN  PEASANTS. 


327 


( 


colored  handkerchief,  which  is  tied  round  the  head  so  that 
one  corner  falls  down  over  the  neck  at  the  back,  a  loose 
gown  of  white,  red,  or  blue  cot- 
ton, cut  low  at  the  neck,  which 
reaches  almost  to  her  ankles, 
and  an  apron  gathered  in  at  the 
waist  and  extending  down  to 
her  knees.  A  pair  of  rag  stock- 
ings and  straw  or  bark  shoes 
completes  the  costume.  The 
dress  of  both  women  and  men 
varies  considerably  in  different 
parts  of  the  empire. 

One  of  the  oddest  things  in 
our  village  is  the  bath  house. 
The  peasants  do  not  wash  often, 
but  when  they  do  they  boil  or 
steam  themselves  clean.  They 
get  into  an  ovenlike  bath  house, 
which  is  filled  with  steam,  and  remain  there  until  they 
have  perspired  the  dirt  out  of  their  pores.  They  look  par- 
boiled when  they  come  out,  but  the  steam  makes  them 
really  much  cleaner  than  a  bath  in  warm  water  would. 
In  the  cities  there  are  large  public  baths  containing  many 
steam  rooms. 

The  peasants  are  very  religious.  We  shall  find  churches 
in  every  district,  and  in  every  hut  we  enter  a  candle  is 
burning  away  under  an  icon  (I'kon)  or  a  painting  of  the 
Savior,  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  one  of  the  saints.  The 
peasant  always  says  a  prayer  when  he  starts  out  to  work. 
He  says  a  prayer  and  crosses  himself  whenever  he  passes 
a  church,  and  he  crosses  himself  when  he  stops  work  to  go 
home.     He  would  not  think  of  living  in  a  house  without 


The  poor  have  felt  boots 
for  winter." 


328  RUSSIA. 

one  of  the  holy  pictures  on  his  walls,  and  he  often  makes 
pilgrimages  to  shrines  and  churches  which  are  considered 
especially  sacred. 

The  most  of  the  peasants  are  uneducated.  Very  few  of 
them  can  read  and  write,  although  of  late  schools  for  peasant 
children  have  been  established  in  the  different  parts  of  the 
empire.      The   peasants  are  much  like   children.      They 


HHHHHI      ^^^^  ^'^i9'"'^1i 

^^Hp  .^^_^     ^1|,    1 

I^Ki 

^B^^Kj'^'          ^l|k||     1 

^^Ih^K^ 

^^9|^'^-t^^^^iiB^^^^^[^iif^^^p^^^^^H 

MT^ 

^H^'HH^I 

" — schools  for  peasant  children  have  been  established." 

call  the  Czar  father,  and  look  up  to  him  with  reverence. 
They  were  for  a  long  time  in  a  state  of  serfdom  to  the 
nobles ;  they  were  almost  the  same  as  slaves,  and  it  was 
only  at  about  the  time  of  our  Civil  War  that  the  Czar 
made  them  free.  They  are  gradually  growing  more  and 
more  independent,  and  at  some  time  will  probably  form 
a  very  strong  and  great  nation. 

The  peasants  own  about  one  third  of  the  cultivated 
lands  of  Russia,  but  they  hold  this  land  in  a  curious  way. 
In  the  United  States  every  farmer  "has  his  own  farm,  and 


THE   RUSSIAN   PEASANTS.  329 

he  plants  his  crops  and  pays  his  taxes  without  asking 
questions  of  any  one.  In  Russia  each  village  owns  a  large 
block  of  land  in  common,  and  the  taxes  are  paid  by  the 
village  and  not  by  the  individual. 

Each  village  is  known  as  a  mir.  This  word  means 
"world,"  for  each  village  is  a  little  world  in  itself.  The 
mir  is  supposed  to  own  the  houses  and  lands  of  the  village, 
and  to  divide  them  up  among  the  people  from  year  to 
year,  each  person  having  an  equal  right  to  the  whole. 
Every  family  keeps  its  house  and  a  little  strip  of  ground, 
but  the  lands  outside  are  divided  among,  and  farmed  by, 
the  people  in  common.  This  is  the  reason  we  saw  no  one 
working  alone  in  the  fields.  The  men,  women,  and  older 
children  all  go  out  together  to  sow,  reap,  and  bring  in  the 
crops. 

The  .village  authorities  fix  the  times  for  sowing  and 
reaping ;  they  appoint  leaders  for  the  people  at  work  and 
say  just  when  to  begin.  The  villagers  elect  their  own 
officers,  and  as  to  local  matters,  they  govern  themselves. 
They  choose  their  own  judges  and  policemen,  and  can 
punish  wrong-doers.  The  village  assemblies  and  elections 
take  place  in  the  open  air,  when  the  people  discuss  among 
themselves  all  matters  relating  to  their  crops  and  their 
government. 

Several  such  villages  constitute  a  volost,  containing 
about  two  thousand  householders,  each  village  electing 
members  to  the  district  council,  which  chooses  the  officers 
for  the  district.  The  districts  of  each  province  in  turn 
send  representatives  to  a  provincial  assembly  composed 
of  not  only  the  peasants,  but  the  nobles  as  well.  All  are 
elected,  so  you  see  the  Russians  largely  govern  them- 
selves ;  although  the  Czar  appoints  the  governors  of  the 
provinces,  and  his  authority  is  over  all 


330  RUSSIA. 

The  Russian  peasants  are  very  fond  of  this  village 
system,  and  a  man  will  not  leave  his  mir,  for  he  does  not 
want  to  lose  his  right  to  the  property  owned  by  his  vil- 
lage. If  he  can  save  money,  he  can  buy  lands  outside 
this,  but,  as  a  rule,  the  peasants  have  only  the  lands  which 
they  hold  in  common. 

XXXIV.     IN    ST.    PETERSBURG. 

STAND  with  me  on  the  dome  of  Saint  Isaac's  cathe- 
dral, and  take  a  look  at  the  great  city  of  St.  Peters- 
burg. We  have  been  traveling  for  days  to  the  northward, 
and  are  at  last  in  the  capital  of  the  Russian  Empire,  on 
the  Neva  River,  not  far  from  the  Baltic.  We  have  driven 
in  our  droskies  from  our  hotel  down  the  Nevski  Prospekt, 
the  chief  street  of  the  city,  and  along  the  banks  of  the 
Neva,  to  this  mighty  church.  We  have  climbed  around 
and  around,  up  the  five  hundred  steps  inside  its  dome,  and 
we  now  stand  on  its  topmost  point,  three  hundred  feet 
above  the  earth,  in  one  of  the  most  curious  cities  of  the 
world.  Below  us,  on  every  side,  extends  a  vast  plain  of 
houses,  cut  up  by  the  great  River  Neva  and  the  many 
canals.  Off  in  the  distance,  at  the  west,  we  can  see  the 
fortifications  of  Kronstadt  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  on 
the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  in  front  of  us  are  beautiful 
islands  dotted  with  the  homes  of  the  nobles,  while  at  our 
back,  both  to  the  right  and  the  left,  stretches  the  city. 
The  country  about  is  composed  of  swamps  and  morasses. 
There  are  green  woods  and  fields  to  be  seen  here  and 
there,  and  everywhere  the  silvery  river  and  canals  sparkle 
under  the  rays  of  the  sun. 

The  city  is  a  vast  plain  of  two,  three,  and  four  story 


IN   ST.   PETERSBURG.  33 1 

houses,  built  of  brick  or  stone,  plastered  with  yellow 
stucco,  and  roofed  with  iron  plates  painted  dark  brown. 
It  is  laid  out  in  acute  angles ;  and  here,  from  the  dome 
of  Saint  Isaac's,  it  looks  like  an  immense  crazy  quilt  of 
brown  diamond-shaped  patches,  sewed  together  with  white 
streets,  and  tied  with  knots  of  white  chimneys. 

What  a  lot  of  chimneys !  There  are  hundreds  to 
every  square,  and  every  house  is  dotted  with  them.  St. 
Petersburg  is  far  to  the  northward.  It  is  covered  with 
ice  and  snow  throughout  the  winter,  and  the  sparks  fly 
up  those  chimneys  from  November  until  May.  It  is  so 
cold  that  the  houses  have  double  windows,  and  every 
room  has  its  enormous  porcelain  stove,  such  as  we  saw  in 
Berlin. 

Notice  how  solidly  the  city  is  built,  and  what  a  space 
each  building  covers.  The  Neva  is  walled  with  stones, 
and  the  great  houses  seem  founded  on  rocks.  They  are 
so  large  that  they  cover  a  mighty  area.  That  crazy  quilt 
is  twenty-five  miles  in  circumference,  and  many  of  its 
blocklike  patches  are  as  big  as  a  good-sized  farm.  The 
vast  houses  are  built  in  flats  or  apartments,  as  in  Paris, 
Berlin,  and  Vienna ;  but  the  rooms  are  much  larger  and 
the  buildings  cover  more  space. 

Here  and  there  we  can  see  a  great  palace  belong- 
ing to  one  of  the  nobles.  That  red  structure  on  the 
banks  of  the  Neva,  at  the  end  of  the  Nevski  Prospekt, 
is  the  Winter  Palace,  where  the  emperor  holds  his  recep- 
tions. It  has  rooms  which  are  larger  than  a  good-sized 
house,  and  its  halls  are  so  wide  that  you  could  turn  a  four- 
horse  wagon  load  of  hay  inside  them  without  touching  the 
walls.  It  has  so  many  rooms  that  the  emperor  does  not 
know  what  is  going  on  in  all  of  them  ;  and  it  is  said  that 
the  servants  once  rented  some  of  them  as  a  stable,  and  that, 


332 


RUSSIA. 


when  a  great  fire  occurred,  a  cow  and  a  goat  were  dragged 
out  with  the  furniture. 

Now  let  your  eyes  run  along  the  Nevski  Prospekt.  That 
is  the  widest  avenue  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  its  chief  business 
street.  Many  of  the  enormous  buildings  upon  it  are  pal- 
aces ;  others  are  stores  and  great  bazaars,  which  are  filled 


The  Winter  Palace. 

with  hundreds  of  merchants.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Neva  you  can  see  immense  wholesale  houses  extending 
for  miles  along  the  quays,  while  the  river  and  its  canals, 
filled  with  shipping,  make  you  think  of  the  views  from  the 
tower  of  the  palace  in  Amsterdam. 

But  what  are  those  immense  golden  mounds  which 
rise  above  the  buildings  in  different  parts  of  the  city.? 
Some    have    tall    spires,    painted    in    the    brightest    of 


IN   ST.   PETERSBURG. 


333 


colors.  Those  are  Russian  churches  and  cathedrals. 
They  are  among  the  grandest  of  Europe,  some  having 
cost  many  millions  of  dollars.  Notice  this  church  of 
Saint  Isaac's,  upon  which  we  are  standing.  Its  dome 
is  almost  as  big  as  that  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington ; 
and  it  is  made  of  copper,  plated  with  gold.  It  took  two 
hundred  pounds  of  solid  gold  to  cover  it,  and  the  cathedral 
itself  has  cost  about  twenty  million  dollars. 


"Now  let  your  eyes  run  along  the  Nevski  Prospekt." 

Let  us  descend  and  go  through  the  church.  It  is  like 
walking  through  a  museum,  it  has  so  many  beautiful 
things  in  marble,  precious  stones,  and  gold  carvings.  The 
cathedral  floor  covers  almost  two  acres.  It  is  of  many 
colored  marbles,  and  the  walls  are  of  marble  inlaid  with 
gold  carvings.  Only  a  rich  man  in  America  can  own  a 
table  of  malachite,  and  we  sometimes  see  jewel  boxes  and 


334 


RUSSIA. 


breastpins  of  that  precious  stone.  In  Saint  Isaac's,  on  the 
two  sides  of  the  altar,  there  are  eight  columns  of  malachite, 
each  as  high  as  a  three-story  house ;  there  are  also  two 
pillars  of  lapis  lazuli,  while  the  fence  about  the  altar  is  of 
golden  posts,  set  into  a  railing  of  the  purest  white  marble. 
The  Kazan  cathedral,  not  far  away,  has  a  balustrade  of 


Saint  Isaac's  Cathedral. 

solid  silver  about  its  altar;  while  the  cathedral  of  Saint 
Peter  and  Saint  Paul  blazes  with  gold,  and  its  mighty 
golden  spire  can  be  seen  for  miles  around. 

There  are  scores  of  other  churches  here  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. There  are  chapels  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  and  it  is 
the  same  in  the  other  great  cities  of  Russia.  Wherever 
we  go,  all  over  the  country,  we  shall  find  churches  and 
chapels.  The  Russians  are  very  religious.  It  is  the  same 
in  the  large  towns  as  we  found  it  in  the  villages.     Every 


IN   ST.   PETERSBURG. 


335 


man  has  a  picture  of  the  Savior,  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  or 
of  a  saint  in  his  house,  and  every  person  crosses  himself 
and  says  his  prayers  many  times  a  day. 

The  chief  rehgion  of  Russia  is  that  of  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox Church.  The  emperor  himself  is  the  head  of  the 
Church,  and  there  are  priests  by  the  thou- 
sands all  over  the  country.  They  dress  in 
black  gowns,  wear  their  hair  long,  and  have 
high  caps  on  their  heads.  They  are  appointed 
by  the  emperor  in  connection  with  the  Holy 
Synod,  which  aids  him  in  managing  the 
Church. 

There  are,  however,  other  churches  in  Rus- 
sia, for  the  empire  is  so  vast  that  it  has  all 
sorts  of  reUgions.  It  has  many  Roman  Catho- 
lics, and  in  Finland  many  Lutherans.  There 
are  numerous  Mohammedans  along  the  Volga 
and  in  southern  Russia,  and  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  Jews  in  western  Russia  and  Poland.  There  are 
Chinese  Confucianists  and  Buddhists  in  the  east,  and  in 
the  Caucasus  Mountains  there  are  many  Armenians. 

From  Saint  Isaac's  cathedral  we  take  droskies  and  drive 
to  the  great  government  buildings.  Some  of  them  are 
larger  than  the  biggest  department  buildings  of  Wash- 
ington, and  as  we  ride  on  through  one  magnificent  street 
after  another  we  are  more  and  more  amazed  at  the  solidity 
of  the  great  Russian  capital. 

And  still  St.  Petersburg  is  built  on  a  swamp.  Its  very 
existence  is  an  evidence  of  the  strength  of  character  of 
the  Russians.  The  other  great  capitals,  we  have  seen, 
have  arisen  largely  from  commercial  and  manufacturing 
reasons  growing  out  of  their  situation.  London  is  at  the 
head  of  navigation  of  the  Thames,  Paris  is  on  the  Seine 


'  They  dress  in 
black  gowns." 


336  RUSSIA. 

in  the  center  of  manufacturing  and  commercial  France, 
Venice  grew  up  on  account  of  the  shipping  trade  of  the 
Adriatic,  and  Amsterdam  and  Rotterdam  were  built  up 
because  they  were  the  commercial  centers  of  the  seafaring 
Dutch  nation.  St.  Petersburg  was  formed  at  the  com- 
mand of  Peter  the  Great,  by  a  people  who  lived  far  away 
from  it,  in  the  interior,  and  who  had  no  reason  for  building 
it  except  the  command  of  their  ruler. 

Peter  the  Great  had  traveled  through  the  different 
countries  of  Europe  in  order  to  study  how  he  might  better 
govern  his  people  and  make  the  most  of  the  great  Russian 
Empire.  He  visited  Holland,  and  England,  and  other 
countries,  where  he  saw  how  the  seaports  helped  build  up 
a  nation,  and  how  valuable  the  navy  was  for  its  defense. 
While  away  he  learned  shipbuilding,  and  he  came  back 
determined  that  his  country  must  have  both  a  seaport  and 
a  great  navy.  He  could  not  start  his  men-of-war  out  from 
the  Black  Sea,  because  he  was  shut  off  by  Turkey,  which 
held  then  and  still  holds  the  Bosporus,  the  only  passage 
out  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  lands  along  the  Arctic 
Ocean  were  too  far  away  and  too  cold,  and  so  he  chose 
this  place  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Neva.  He  was  not  alarmed  because  it  was  swampy,  nor 
did  he  fear  because  it  was  covered  with  woods.  He 
said  to  himself,  "  Here  I  will  erect  my  seaport  and  my 
capital ! " 

Peter's  command  went  forth,  and  at  his  word  like 
magic  this  great  stone  city  sprang  into  being.  Piles  by 
the  millions  were  driven  down  to  make  the  foundation,  the 
river  Neva  was  held  back  by  walls  of  granite,  and  every 
Russian  subject  was  called  upon  to  do  something  to  build 
the  new  capital.  Every  noble  in  the  land  was  ordered  to 
build  a  house  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  every  Russian  who 


IN  ST.  PETERSBURG. 


337 


owned  five  hundred  serfs  had  to  put  up  a  two-story  house, 
no  matter  whether  he  lived  on  the  edge  of  the  Caspian 
Sea  or  on  the  border  of  the  Ural  Mountains.  Every 
vessel  on  the  Russian  rivers  and  every  Russian  ship  on 
the  Baltic  had  to  bring  a  load  of  stones  to  aid  in  building 
the  city,  and  all  the  peasants  near  by  were  ordered  to 
help.  Forty  thousand  men  were  drafted  every  year  to  aid 
in  the  work,  and  nobles  as  well  as  peasants  dug  out  the 


•the  emperor  lived  in  a  little  house  by  the  river.' 


foundations  and  built  up  the  houses.  Even  the  criminals 
from  prisons  were  made  to  toil  here  under  the  guns  of  the 
guards ;  and  through  it  all  the  emperor  lived  in  a  little 
house  by  the  river  and  watched  the  building. 

This  house  still  stands,  and  we  drive  across  the  Neva  to 
see  it.  It  is  so  small  that  it  would  hardly  be  noticed  if  it 
were  placed  in  the  great  ballroom  of  the  Winter  Palace. 
It  contains  two  rooms  and  a  kitchen,  and  is  not  unlike 
one  of  the  cabins  of  our  forests  of  Wisconsin  and  Michigan. 


338  RUSSIA. 

The  Russians  reverence  it  as  the  home  of  their  great  em- 
peror, and  they  have  built  another  house  over  it,  that  it 
may  withstand  the  weather.  As  we  walk  through  it,  we 
can  hardly  realize  that  when  it  was  built,  less  than  two 
hundred  years  ago,  the  wolves  howled  in  the  woods  all 
about  it,  and  that  now  more  than  one  hundred  million 
people  look  upon  it  as  the  chief  place  upon  earth. 

Leaving  this  lowly  hut,  we  again  cross  the  Neva  to  visit 
the  palaces  and  government  departments,  and  learn  more 
about  the  Russia  of  to-day.  We  find  that  the  emperor 
has  still,  nominally,  almost  as  much  power  as  had  Peter 
the  Great;  although  in  reality  he  rules  largely  through 
his  cabinet  ministers  and  the  governors  of  the  various 
provinces.  We  have  learned  that  there  are  seventy-nine 
states  in  the  Russian  Empire,  each  of  which  has  some 
officials  appointed  by  the  Czar,  but  most  of  which  are 
more  largely  ruled  by  the  people  themselves.  We  learn 
that  the  empire  contains  the  enormous  number  of  about 
one  hundred  and  thirty  million  people,  and  of  these  more 
than  one  hundred  millions  live  in  Russia.  The  European 
Russians  are  chiefly  of  the  Slav  race,  but  there  are  many 
other  races  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  more 
than  thirty  different  peoples  in  the  Caucasus  alone. 

At  the  War  and  Navy  Departments  we  are  shown  thai 
the  Russians  have  a  great  navy,  and  that  their  army  is  one 
of  the  strongest  of  the  world ;  and  at  other  offices  are  told 
that  the  government  is  doing  its  best  to  develop  the  enor- 
mous natural  resources  of  the  empire  by  building  railroads, 
opening  mines,  and  encouraging  the  people  in  all  sorts  of 
manufacture  and  trade. 

Russia  is  also  rapidly  developing  its  vast  possessions 
outside  Europe.  Railroads  are  building  in  Siberia  and 
central  Asia,  which  have  opened  up  rich  territories  in  that 


IN  ST.  PETERSBURa  339 

continent.  Mines  of  gold,  silver,  iron,  and  coal  are  being 
worked,  and  vast  tracts  of  grain  and  cotton  are  cultivated. 
Many  thousand  Russian  peasants  emigrate  to  these  coun- 
tries every  year,  so  that  in  time  much  of  Asia  will  be 
populated  by  the  Slav  race. 

We  make  excursions  north  into  Finland,  traveling 
through  the  woods,,  by  hundreds  of  beautiful  lakes ;  and 
also  along  the  coast,  where  there  are  fiords  Hke  those  of 
Scandinavia.  The  inhabitants  remind  us  of  the  Swedes, 
although  there  are  some  people  in  the  extreme  north,  known 
as  Finns,  who  are  of  the  yellow  race.  The  people  —  Fin- 
landers  —  everywhere  are  different  from  the  Russians, 
although  they  are  ruled  by  the  Czar,  who  has  the  title  of 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Finland.  They  have  a  senate  at  Hel- 
singfors,  where  they  make  their  own  laws  and  have  to  some 
extent  a  government  of  their  own. 

The  Finlanders  are  chiefly  farmers,  dairymen,  and  lum- 
bermen. They  are  far  more  thrifty  and  better  educated 
than  the  Russians.  They  have  neat  villages  made  of  log 
cabins,  and  some  fine  cities  such  as  Helsingfors,  the  capital, 
which  lies  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  having  an  excellent 
harbor. 

Another  trip  takes  us  to  Warsaw,  on  the  Vistula,  in  Rus- 
sian Poland.  Here  the  inhabitants  are  almost  all  Poles.' 
They  are  a  high-spirited  people  who  for  a  long  time  had  a*^ 
kingdom  of  their  own.  They  had  some  of  the  best  lands 
of  Europe,  but  the  Russians  and  Prussians,  who  coveted 
their  property,  made  war  upon  them  and  conquered  them, 
and  divided  up  Poland,  so  that  Russia  now  has  here  a  state 
about  as  large  as  New  York  with  a  soil  fully  as  rich.  The 
Poles  still  keep  their  own  language  and  customs,  but  they 
are  ruled  by  the  Czar.  They  have  many  large  towns,  Warsaw 
being  the  third  city  in  size  of  the  whole  Russian  Empire. 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  21 


340 


RUSSIA. 


XXXV.     MOSCOW— COMMERCIAL   AND 
MANUFACTURING   RUSSIA. 

A  DAY'S  ride  from  Warsaw  has  brought  us  to  Moscow, 
the  commercial  capital  of  the  great  Russian  Empire. 
The  city  stands  right  in  the  heart  of  European  Russia,  on 


Moscow. 

the  navigable  Moscow  River,  which  connects  it  with  the 
Oka  and  Volga.  It  has  easy  access  by  rail  to  the  Don, 
Dnieper,  and  Dwina  rivers,  and  is  so  situated  that  it  is 
the  chief  railroad  center  of  Russia.  It  is  in  the  most 
densely  populated  part  of  the  empire,  and  its  situation 
especially  fits  it  for  the  center  of  Russian  manufacture 
and  trade.    It  has  more  than  a  thousand  factories  in  and 


MOSCOW.  .  341 

about  it,  and  the  smokestacks  rise  here  and  there  above 
the  city,  rivaling  in  height  the  golden  spires  of  its  churches. 
The  factories  employ  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  work- 
men, and  turn  out  a  product  worth  several  hundred  million 
dollars  per  year. 

A  great  quantity  of  goods  of  all  kinds  is  required  to  supply 
the  vast  population  of  Russia,  and  the  factories  are  rapidly 
growing  in  number.  There  are  now  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand  in  the  empire,  and  more  are  being  built.  There 
are  many  cotton,  linen,  woolen,  and  flour  mills  in  Russian 
Poland ;  there  are  factories  of  all  kinds  in  St.  Petersburg, 
and  also  in  Odessa,  and  along  the  Volga  River;  while  there 
are  many  little  silk  mills  in  the  Caucasus  Mountains.  Not 
far  south  of  Moscow  is  Tula,  the  Sheffield  of  Russia,  where 
are  the  great  gun  factories  which  supply  the  Russian  army, 
and  enormous  railroad  shops  and  works  for  making  knives, 
tools,  and  machinery.  In  Moscow  there  are  vast  cotton 
mills,  sugar  mills,  and  establishments  which  turn  out  almost 
everything  made  of  wood,  iron,  and  steel. 

The  chief  workshops  of  Russia,  however,  are  in  the 
homes  of  the  people,  the  product  made  there  annually 
amounting  in  value  to  more  than  five  hundred  million  dol- 
lars. Six  sevenths  of  all  the  goods  made  are  the  result  of 
such  house  industry,  for  the  peasants  are  everywhere 
working  at  their  trades  in  their  homes.  Nearly  every 
Russian  village  has  its  specialty.  In  some  the  people  spin 
yarn  and  weave  cloth,  and  in  others  they  tnake  boots  and 
shoes.  There  are  towns  along  the  Volga  which  turn  out 
fine  axes  and  knives ;  just  outside  Moscow  is  a  village 
whose  people  are  noted  for  beating  gold  leaf,  while  near 
Tula  there  are  two  thousand  people  who  work  away  in 
their  little  houses  making  accordions.  In  southern  Russia 
rugs  and  carpets  as  beautiful  as  those  of  India  and  Turkey 


342  RUSSIA. 

are  woven  by  hand,  and  in  central  Russia  there  are  many 
thousands  who  paint  icons  or  pictures  of  saints,  such  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  houses  and  stores  with  candles  and  in- 
cense burning  below  them.  These  icons  are  cut  out  of 
plates  of  carved  gold,  silver,  or  brass,  only  the  faces  being 
painted.  They  are  of  all  sizes  and  prices,  from  little  ones 
no  bigger  than  a  watch,  which  sell  for  a  few  cents,  up  to 
some  as  big  as  a  barn  door,  worth  thousands  of  dollars. 
There  are  stores  in  Moscow  which  sell  nothing  else,  and 
we  can  find  icon  stores  in  all  the  large  cities. 

There  are  some  villages  in  Russia  where  the  people 
make  a  business  of  raising  canaries  for  sale,  and 
some  where  they  raise  cats  for  their  skins.  The  cats 
bring  five  or  ten  cents  apiece ;  they  are  bought  by  travel- 
ing merchants,  who  ship  their  skins  to  the  fur  markets 
of  the  empire.  In  other  villages  pigeons  are  bred  for 
their  skins,  which  .are  cured  with  the  feathers  on,  and 
sold  at  the  fairs  to  be  exported  to  all  parts  of  Europe 
and  our  country,  for  decorating  ladies'  hats  and  lining 
fine  cloaks. 

You  have  all  heard  of  Russian  leather.  It  is  prized 
everywhere  for  pocketbooks,  vahses,  slippers,  and  book 
bindings.  It  has  a  delightful  odor  from  the  birch  bark 
employed  by  the  tanners.  Much  of  it  is  made  in  small 
tanneries,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  engaged 
at  their  homes  making  various  articles  from  it,  both  for 
export  and  for  sale  to  the  Russians.  In  some  parts  of  the 
empire  the  women  wear  high  boots  of  soft  leather,  and 
every  Russian  man  who  can  afford  it  has  at  least  one  pair 
of  boots  which  come  up  to  his  knees.  There  are  thousands 
of  women  who  knit  beautiful  lace,  and  Russian  velvets 
are  noted  all  over  Europe. 

The  Russians  are  skillful  in  making  all  sorts  of  things. 


MOSCOW.  343 

and  some  day,  when  machinery  has  taken  the  place  of 
hand  labor,  they  will  be  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  manu- 
facturing nations.  The  empire  has  vast  deposits  of  gold 
and  silvel-,  and  of  coal,  iron,  and  copper ;  it  has  more  wood 
than  any  other  European  country;  it  raises  quantities  of 
wool  and  flax  and  tobacco,  and  also  in  Asia  a  great  deal 
of  cotton,  so  that  it  has  all  the  materials  for  a  great  manu- 
facturing country. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  the  most  of  the  Russian  peasants 
were  practically  in  slavery,  and  all  sorts  of  work  were 
done  in  the  rudest  way.  Now  the  people  are  intro- 
ducing modern  inventions,  and  they  are  estabUshing  large 
factories  with  the  finest  machinery.  They  are  opening 
up  their  mines  both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  the  government 
is  encouraging  improved  methods  of  farming,  and  the 
education  of  the  people  has  begun.  They  are  rapidly 
growing  in  intelligence  and  wealth,  and  they  will  continue 
to  grow.  Many  believe  that  the  two  greatest  nations  of 
the  world  of  the  future  will  be  the  Russians  and  the 
Americans. 

But  let  us  take  a  stroll  through  the  business  sections  of 
Moscow.  We  shall  find  them  different  from  those  of  the 
other  great  cities  we  have  seen,  for  Russia  is  in  some 
respects  more  like  Asia  than  Europe  or  the  United 
States.  Here  we  are,  in  one  of  the  great  bazaars  which 
we  find  in  all  Russian  cities.  It  is  a  vast  building  cover- 
ing many  acres,  filled  with  all  sorts  of  shops,  opening  out 
into  covered  corridors  or  arcades,  so  that  there  are  hun- 
dreds upon  hundreds  of  stores  under  one  roof.  This  one 
bazaar  has  twelve  hundred  stores ;  it  is  a  whole  town  of 
stores  roofed  over,  and  the  stores  are  of  all  kinds,  so  that 
you  can  buy  anything  you  want  from  a  slate  pencil  to  a 
sealskin  coat,  or  from  a  toothpick  to  a  set  of  furniture. 


344  RUSSIA. 

There  are  jewelry  shops  and  clothing  stores,  stores  sell- 
ing leather  goods,  and  stores  which  deal  only  in  pictures 
and  books.  We  wander  through  one  arcaded  street  after 
another,  past  beautiful  things  of  all  kinds,  and  some  of 
great  value,  realizing  as  we  do  so  that  Russia  must  have 
a  large  class  of  rich  people  to  buy  goods  so  very  expen- 
sive. 

We  are  also  surprised  at  the  way  they  do  business. 
When  we  attempt  to  purchase,  the  merchant  usually 
charges  us  more  than  he  expects  to  receive,  and  we  must 
bargain  with  him  if  we  would  pay  only  a  fair  price.  The 
result  is  that  we  offset  his  price  by  an  offer  of  much  less, 
whereupon  he  comes  down  a  little.  We  then  go  up  a 
few  cents,  and  if  we  hold  out  we  at  last  get  it  perhaps 
for  what  we  are  willing  to  give. 

The  business  hours  in  the  bazaars  are  from  nine  in  the 
morning  until  five  in  the  afternoon.  We  visit  them  one 
day  about  shutting-up  time,  and  watch  the  merchants 
lock  up  for  the  night.  Each  store  facing  the  street  has 
windows  and  doors,  which  are  closed  tight  and  then  fas- 
tened with  padlocks.  The  merchant  turns  the  key  and 
then  ties  the  padlock  to  the  staple,  sealing  the  two 
ends  of  the  string  with  hot  wax,  into  which  he  presses 
his  stamp,  so  that  the  store  cannot  possibly  be  opened  with- 
out breaking  the  seal.  He  then  stands  in  front  of  the 
closed  doors  and  crosses  himself,  saying  a  prayer,  before 
he  leaves  for  the  night.  He  will  probably  say  another 
when  he  opens  his  shop  in  the  morning. 

Outside  the  bazaars  there  are  many  stores  scattered 
over  the  city,  some  of  which  have  curious  signs.  They 
have  pictures  painted  on  the  walls  facing  the  street,  which 
show  what  articles  are  sold  within,  so  that  those  who  can- 
not  read  may  understand  from  the   pictures.     Take,  for 


MOSCOW.  345 

instance,  that  barber  sign  over  there  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street !  The  whole  wall  of  the  shop  is  covered  with 
it.  One  part  of  it  represents  a  man  in  his  shirt  sleeves  shav- 
ing a  customer,  while  opposite  him  is  a  lady  holding  out  her 
arm,  from  which  a.  stream  of  blood  is  spouting,  .while  a  man 
stands  beside  her  with  a  knife  in  his  hand.  Farther  down 
in  the  picture  sits  a  boy  having  a  tooth  pulled,  and  the 
whole  sign  shows  us  that  the  man  within  is  not  only  a  bar- 
ber, but  a  dentist  and  surgeon  as  well.  That  store  farther 
on  is  a  feed  store.  There  is  a  bundle  of  hay  in  the  doorway, 
and  on  the  walls  at  the  sides  are  pictures  of  horses  and 
cows  feeding  and  grazing.  The  tea  signs  represent  China- 
men sipping  tea;  while  the  dairy  signs  are  pictures  of 
cows  with  maids  milking  them. 

We  visit  the  markets  before  going  back  to  our  hotel. 
They  are  of  enormous  extent,  and  are  filled  with  the  finest 
of  game,  meats,  fish,  and  vegetables.  The  better  class 
Russians  are  noted  for  their  extravagant  living,  and  the 
markets  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  are  as  good  as 
those  of  any  other  European  city.  Fish  may  be  bought 
alive.  They  are  kept  in  stone  vats  of  running  water,  each 
filled  with  its  own  kind  of  fish.  In  the  dining  rooms  of 
some  of  the  great  restaurants  there  are  marble  fountains 
with  fishes  swimming  about  in  them.  You  can  point  out 
the  fish  you  want  for  your  supper,  and  the  waiter  will 
catch  it  in  a  net  and  cook  it  for  you,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  say  it  is  the  best  fish  you  ever  ate.  Russia  is  noted 
for  fine  fish,  and  it  exports  quantities  of  fish  and  fish  eggs 
every  year.  The  Volga,  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  the  Black 
Sea  have  rich  fishing  grounds,  and  there  are  fisheries 
along  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  the  Baltic  Sea. 

In  the  markets  we  see  cans,  buckets,  and  tubs  of  caviar. 
This  is  a  Russian  dainty  made  of  the  roe  of  the  sturgeon. 


346  RUSSIA. 

Caviar  looks  like  bird  shot,  but  it  is  in  reality  the  eggs  of 
the  sturgeon,  which  are  eaten  in  great  quantities  by  the 
people  throughout  Russia.  The  fresh  caviar  is  the  best, 
but  a  great  deal  of  it  is  canned,  and  thus  sold  all  over  the 
world.  After  the  eggs  have  been  removed,  the  sturgeon 
meat  is  salted,  and  you  can  buy  it  in  the  market  at  about 
ten  cents  a  pound.  There  are  also  stalls  where  only  dried 
fish  is  sold.  This  is  eaten  by  the  people  everywhere,  and 
it  forms  a  large  part  of  the  diet  of  the  peasants. 

The  queerest  market  sights  are  those  of  the  winter, 
when  almost  everything  is  sold  in  a  frozen  state.  The 
Russian  winter  is  so  cold  that  fish  and  meats  can  easily  be 
kept  frozen  for  months.  The  butcher  can  lay  away  his 
beef,  mutton,  and  chickens  in  October,  and  bring  them 
forth  at  any  time  during  the  winter.  The  meats  are  frozen 
so  hard  that  a  knife  will  not  cut  them,  and  they  have  to 
be  sawed,  or  chopped  up  with  an  ax,  when  it  is  said  splin- 
ters of  meat  fly  about  in  every  direction,  and  the  beggars 
collect  them  and  take  them  off  home. 

Leaving  the  markets,  we  go  back  to  our  hotel.  It  is  an 
enormous  structure,  having  a  dining  room  so  large  that  a 
thousand  people  can  be  seated  in  it  at  one  time.  The  food 
is  excellent,  and  we  find  that  we  can  live  as  well  in  Moscow 
as  in  any  other  city  we  have  visited.  The  customs  of 
eating,  however,  are  different  from  those  of  the  other  Euro- 
pean countries.  The  first  thing  the  Russian  does  upon 
entering  the  dining  room  is  to  go  to  a  lunch  counter,  which 
is  always  found  at  one  side  of  the  room,  where  vodka,  a 
Russian  liquor,  and  such  relishes  as  caviar,  raw  herring, 
smoked  salmon,  radishes,  butter,  and  cheese  are  laid  out. 
He  drinks  a  small  glass  of  the  vodka  and  eats  a  bit  of  a 
relish  while  standing,  and  then  goes  and  takes  his  seat  for 
his  dinner.  , 


MOSCOW.  347 

The  first  thing  that  is  served  at  a  regular  dinner  is  soup  ; 
and  we  find  the  ordinary  dish  of  Russian  soup  almost  a 
whole  meal.  One  of  the  most  popular  kinds  is  known  as 
stchee.  Sneeze  hard  and  you  will  get  the  right  pronuncia- 
tion !  Stchee  is  made  of  cabbage  and  beef,  to  which  is 
often  added  a  bowl  of  sour  cream.  Each  plateful  of  the 
soup  has  a  big  chunk  of  beef  in  the  middle,  and  we  are 
expected  first  to  eat  the  soup  and  then  to  cut  up  the  beef 
and  eat  it.  There  are  other  soups  of  all  kinds,  hot  and 
cold.  There  is  even  iced  soup,  as  we  discover  when  we 
lunch  one  day  at  a  restaurant.  We  cannot  read  Russian, 
and  point  to  the  odd  letters  where  the  word  soup  should 
be  on  the  bill  of  fare,  and  ask  the  waiter  for  that.  He  goes 
to  the  kitchen  and  brings  a  great  bowl  of  white  hquid  with 
a  piece  of  ice  as  big  as  his  fist  floating  about  in  it.  We 
try  it.     It  tastes  like  iced  vinegar,  and  one  taste  is  enough. 

After  the  soup,  meat  and  vegetables  of  various  kinds 
are  brought  on,,  and  then  most  delicious  desserts.  The 
Russian  bread  and  butter  at  the  better  hotels  is  always 
good. 

Leaving  the  markets,  we  take  droskies  and  ride  about 
Moscow.  It  is  built  upon  the  hills  and  hollows  which  here 
line  the  winding  Moscow  River.  It  is  twenty-five  miles  in 
circumference,  and  the  shortest  car  line  from  one  side  of  it 
to  the  other  is  nine  miles  long. 

In  the  very  center  of  the  city  is  a  great  fortress  or 
citadel  known  as  the  Kremhn,  which  contains  the  old 
palace  of  the  Czar,  several  famous  Russian  churches,  the 
cathedral  in  which  the  emperors  of  Russia  are  crowned, 
and  the  tall  tower  of  Ivan  the  Great. 

The  tower  is  five  stories  high,  and  its  golden  dome  seems 
to  float  in  the  air  away  up  there  three  hundred  feet  above 
the  ground.     There  is  a  stairway  in  it,  and  we  climb  up 


348 


RUSSIA. 


four  hundred  and  fifty  steps  to  the  top,  for  a  view  of  the 
city.  We  are  hanging  over  a  vast  expanse  of  trees  and 
houses,  out  of  which  rise  the  golden  spires  and  domes  of 
hundreds  of  churches.  There  are  thousands  of  green  trees, 
the  roofs  of  the  houses  are  all  painted  green,  while  some 
of  the  church  domes  are  of  sky  blue,  spotted  with  stars  of 
gold.     On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  we  can  see  the 


The  Kremlin. 

golden  dome  of  the  Church  of  our  Savior,  and  beyond 
the  city  the  smokestacks  of  the  factories ;  while  just  under 
us  is  the  great  triangular  walled  space  known  as  the 
Kremlin.  It  is  paved  with  cobblestones,  and  its  massive 
wall  is  entered  by  five  gates,  each  of  which  has  a  history. 
There  is  the  one  through  which  we  came.  It  is  called 
the  Gate  of  the  Redeemer  on  account  of  a  picture  of  the 


MOSCOW. 


349 


Church  of  our  Savior. 

Savior  above  it,  and  every  one,  from  the  Czar  to  the  peas- 
ant, takes  off  his  hat  to  that  picture  as  he  goes  through. 
Every  inch  of  land  within  the  walls  of  the  KremHn  is  his- 
toric and  sacred.  In  the  church  below  us  all  the  Czars  of 
Russia  have  been  crowned,  and  there  to  the  left  is  the 
imperial  treasury,  where  are  the  jewels  and  the  costly 
plate  belonging  to  the  Russian  crown.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  gold  and  precious 
stones  in  that  building ;  there  are  basins  of  gold  as  big  as 
a  foot  bath,  some  of  the  world's  greatest  diamonds,  and 
two  tables  of  solid  silver. 

As  we  go  down  from  the  Tower  of  Ivan  the  Great,  we 
pass  the  many  bells  for  which  it  is  noted.  Russia  is  a  land 
of  bells,  and  there  are  said  to  be  two  thousand  in  Moscow 
alone.      The   largest  bell   that   rings,   so   large  that  you 


350 


RUSSIA. 


could  not  get  it  into  an  ordinary  parlor,  hangs  within  the 
tower ;  and  there  are  others,  some  of  which  are  made  of 
solid  silver,  but  of  smaller  size.  As  we  come  out  of  the 
Tower  we  see  at  its  foot,  on  a  pedestal  of  stone,  the  big- 
gest bell  ever  made.  It  is  as  tall  as  a  two-story  house,  is 
fifty-five  feet  in  circumference,  and  two  feet  in  thickness. 

A  piece  taller  than 
a  man  is  broken  out 
of  its  side,  and  when 
we  climb  up  and 
crawl  into  the  hole 
where  this  piece 
once  was,  we  are 
in  a  great  tent  of 
bronze.  This  bell 
was  first  cast  in  the 
sixteenth  century, 
lind  was  hung  in 
Ivan's  Tower.  The 
tower  burned,  and 
when  the  bell  fell 
it  was  broken  in 
pieces.  It  was  cast 
again  in  a  larger 
size,  but  when  the 
metal       was       still 


"  —  the  biggest  bell  ever  made." 


molten,  the  women  of  Moscow,  in  a  religious  frenzy,  threw 
their  jewelry  into  the  mass,  and  this  rendered  it  so  imper- 
fect that  when  it  was  rung  a  great  piece  broke  out  of  its 
side.  Then  there  was  another  fire,  and  the  bell  fell  once 
more,  never  to  rise  again. 

From  the  Kremlin  we  visit  the  great   Church   of   our 
Savior,  built  to  commemorate  the  deliverance  of  Moscow 


DOWN  THE  VOLGA  TO  THE  CASPIAN   SEA.  35 1 

when  the  French  soldiers  under  Napoleon  invaded  the 
country.  The  church  cost  about  forty  million  dollars,  or 
about  three  times  as  much  as  our  Capitol  at  Washington. 
Later  on  we  spend  some  time  in  the  Moscow  University, 
which  was  founded  by  Peter  the  Great,  and  which  has  now 
several  thousand  students. 

We  next  drive,  out  to  the  peoples'  park,  and  enjoy  our- 
selves with  the  Russian  children  in  the  roller  coasters  and 
merry-go-rounds;  we  listen  to  the  open  air  concerts,  and 
drink  our  tea  under  the  trees.  We  find  that  the  Russians 
are  fond  of  enjoyment  and  pleasure.  They  have  shows  of 
all  kinds,  and  their  musicians  are  among  the  best  of  the 
world. 

XXXVI.     DOWN   THE  VOLGA  .TO   THE 
CASPIAN    SEA. 

WE  are  at  Nizhni  Novgorod  (nezh'ni  nov'go-rod),  on 
the  River  Volga.  We  have  come  from  Moscow  by 
train,  and  are  now  on  a  bluff  overlooking  the  Volga,  at  the 
point  where  the  Oka  flows  into  it.  Above  us  upon  a  hill 
is  a  great  fortress,  and  behind  and  about  us  a  city  with 
fine  streets,  many  stores  and  churches,  and  large  public 
buildings.  It  contains  one  hundred  thousand  people,  and 
the  noise  of  its  business  and  traffic  makes  a  din  in  our  ears. 
Below,  on  the  tongue  of  land  formed  by  the  junction  of 
the  Volga  and  Oka,  is  another  city  almost  as  large,  but, 
strange  to  say,  as  quiet  and  deserted  as  a  city  of  the  dead. 
We  cannot  see  a  wreath  of  smoke  coming  from  its  thou- 
sands of  chimneys ;  its  many  stores  are  closed,  and  their 
shelves  have  no  goods  upon  them.  It  has  theaters,  but  no 
actors ;  its  electric  lights  have  not  shone  for  months,  and 


352 


RUSSIA. 


the  grass  is  growing  in  its  streets.  It  is  the  Fair  City  of 
Nizhni  Novgorod,  which  for  about  a  month  in  late  summer 
is  one  of  the  liveliest  trading  places  in  the  whole  world, 
but  which  for  the  rest  of  the  year  is  deserted  and  dead. 


m.Wm^^^^ 

ii^j^ 

iK-^BK^rgaE 

■-ssMPPSf  ■■^■%? 

.  -,.-  :^^*;^:'-pB^ 

",„rw^?^ 

Nizhni  Novgorod. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  most  of  the  business  of  Europe 
was  done  in  great  fairs  held  at  all  the  principal  centers, 
and  visited  by  buyers  and  sellers  from  everywhere.  These 
fairs  were  usually  held  once  a  year,  and  they  often  lasted 
for  weeks.  They  were  established  because  there  were  but 
few  large  cities  with  stores  of  all  kinds  such  as  are  found 
in  Europe  to-day.  Most  of  the  people  lived  in  villages  as 
they  still  do  in  Russia ;  there  were  no  railroads,  and  but 
few  good  wagon  roads,  and  no  way  of  moving  rapidly 
about  upon  the  rivers,  so  that  the  people  could  not  go  often 
from  one  place  to  another  to  buy  or  sell  goods.     As  the 


DOWN  THE  VOLGA  TO  THE  CASPIAN  SEA.  353 

means  of  communication  improved  and  the  cities  grew,  the 
fairs  passed  away,  but  there  are  still  a  number  in  Russia, 
and  now  and  then  one  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  such  as 
Leipsig,  where  we  heard  of  the  book  fairs  and  fur  fairs 
which  are  still  held  every  year. 

The  principal  fair  of  Russia  meets  annually  in  that  de- 
serted city  below  us.  Those  houses  have  been  built  for 
it ;  they  contain  more  than  six  thousand  shops,  which  a 
month  or  so  hence  will  be  filled  with  goods.  There  will 
be  more  than  six  thousand  merchants  selling  them,  and 
many,  many  thousands  of  purchasers.  Then  the  banks 
of  the  Volga  for  ten  miles  above  here  will  be  covered  with 
merchandise,  and  both  the  Volga  and  Oka  will  be  crowded 
with  shipping.  Vessels  from  the  Caspian  Sea  will  bring  raw 
cotton  from  Central  Asia,  and  bales  of  fine  wool  from  South 
Russia,  as  well  as  carpets,  rugs,  silks,  and  other  such  things. 
Barges  of  pig  iron  from  Siberia  will  be  floated  down  from 
the  Ural  Mountains,  and  great  loads  of  brick  tea  will  be 
carried  on  camels  over  the  highlands  from  China.  Every 
variety  of  goods  made  in  the  thousands  of  factories  of 
Russia  will  be  brought  hither,  as  well  as  skins,  furs,  fish, 
sugar,  coffee,  rice,  and,  in  short,  almost  everything  that  is 
made  anywhere.  Most  of  the  business  will  be  at  wholesale, 
and  a  vast  deal  of  money  will  change  hands. 

The  customers  will  be  of  all  the  nations  and  races  of 
eastern  Europe  and  southern  and  western  Asia.  One 
section  of  the  city  will  be  given  up  to  the  Chinese,  another 
to  the  Persians  and  Turks,  and  others  to  the  Russians. 
There  will  be  Georgians  and  Circassians,  Armenians  and 
Roumanians,  Germans  and  Hungarians,  and  merchants 
from  every  part  of  the  Russian  Empire.  There  will  in  all 
be  several  hundred  thousand  strangers  in  the  great  fair 
city,  and  we  regret  we  cannot  stay  for  the   sight.     We 


354  RUSSIA. 

have  time  for  only  a  drive  through  the  now  deserted 
streets,  after  which  we  take  the  steamer  for  our  long  ride 
down  the  Volga  to  the  Caspian  Sea. 

How  interesting  it  is  !  We  have  steamed  out  of  Nizhni 
Novgorod,  and  are  now  moving  southward  upon  the  great- 
est river  of  Europe.  The  Volga  is  twenty-three  hundred 
miles  long,  and  is  navigable  almost  all  the  way  from  its 
source  to  its  mouth.  It  is  one  of  the  great  trade  routes 
of  Russia,  and  one  of  the  commercial  water  ways  of  the 
world,  including,  with  its  tributaries,  more  than  seven  thou- 
sand miles  of  navigable  water  ways.  It  is  connected  by 
canal  with  the  Neva,  so  that  boats  and  barges  from  the 
Baltic  can  be  taken  through  that  river  and  the  canal  into 
the  Volga,  and  carried  on  down  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  It 
has  other  canals  which  connect  it  with  the  Dwina  and  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  and  one  joining  the  Oka  to  the  Don,  by 
which  goods  can  be  taken  from  the  Volga,  up  the  Oka, 
into  the  Don  and  the  Black  Sea. 

The  river  is  winding,  and  the  scene  continually  changes. 
Now  we  are  going  north  and  now  south.  Now  the  stream 
widens,  so  that  we  seem  to  be  steaming  through  a  great 
lake,  and  now  it  is  narrow  and  deep  with  high  rugged 
banks.  One  day  we  have  a  storm  and  the  water  changes 
from  silver  to  ink,  while  the  winds  from  the  plain  sweep  in 
gusts  over  our  vessel.  The  storm  passes,  and  the  sun  sets 
in  a  blaze  of  red  in  the  western  horizon. 

Every  few  miles  we  pass  a  large  village  of  log  huts, 
and  now  and  then  go  by  a  city.  There  are  forty  large 
cities  on  the  Volga,  and  more  than  one  thousand  towns 
and  villages.  We  see  many  windmills,  and  everywhere, 
above  the  towns,  the  spires  and  domes  of  the  churches. 

Our  first  long  stay  is  at  Kazan,  which  we  reach  about  a 
day  and  a  night  after  leaving  Nizhni  Novgorod.     It  is  one 


DOWN  THE  VOLGA  TO  THE  CASPIAN   SEA. 


355 


of  the  oldest  cities  of  Russia,  having  been  the  capital  of 

the  Tartars  when  those  almond-eyed,  yellow  savages  over- 
ran Eastern  Europe,  and 

for    two    hundred    years 

fought    for   the    country 

with  the  Slavs.  They  were 

finally  conquered  by  the 

Russians,  under  Ivan  the 

Terrible,    but    many    of 

the  Tartars  remained  in 

Kazan,    and     there     are 

thousands  of   Tartars  in 

it  to-day.  There  are  three 

now  in  that  crowd  on  the 

wharf  !  You  can  tell  them 

by  their  yellow  faces  and 

slant   eyes.      They   have 

caps  of   black  astrakhan 

fur,  and  their  heads  are 

shaved  close;  while  the  Russians  have  caps  with  visors, 

and  wear  their  hair  long.     Farther  back  is  a  group  of 

Tartar  women.     They  are   queer-looking   creatures  with 

sacques  over  their  heads. 
The  Tartars  are  good  Mo- 
hammedans, and  Moham- 
medan women  seldom 
show  their  faces  to  any 
men  but  their  husbands. 

The  country  is  densely 
populated,    and    we    see 
children  everywhere. 
Farther  down  the  river  we  spend  an  hour  in  Samara, 

a  large  city  with  many  windmills  about  it,  and  stop  again 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  22 


Tartar  Women. 


we  see  children  everywhere. 


356  RUSSIA. 

farther  on  at  Saratof,  in  a  grain-growing  region.  Every- 
where we  see  rich  crops  of  wheat,  barley,  and  rye.  There 
are  miles  upon  miles  of  pastures,  herds  of  cattle  and  horses, 
and  great  flocks  of  sheep,  and  vast  tracts  of  sunflowers  with 
their  great  golden  blossoms  swaying  to  and  fro  in  the  wind. 

The  Russians  raise  sunflowers  for  their  seeds,  and  they 
consider  them  a  very  profitable  crop.  The  seeds  when 
pressed  yield  a  rich  oil,  which  is  used  for  salads  and 
cooking,  and  also  for  lighting  and  making  candles  and 
soap.  The  refuse  of  the  seeds  after  the  oil  is  squeezed 
out  is  an  excellent  food  for  pigs,  cattle,  and  sheep,  and 
also  for  rabbits,  pigeons,  and  poultry.  The  people  eat 
the  seeds  as  we  do  peanuts,  keeping  a  handful  or  so  in 
their  pockets,  and  nibbling  away  on  them  from  time  to 
time.  There  is  such  a  demand  for  the  seeds  for  various 
purposes,  that  more  than  forty  million  pounds  of  them 
are  raised  every  year.  The  flowers  are  rich  in  honey,  and 
the  farmers  keep  bees,  which  feed  upon  them.  A  yellow 
dye  is  made  from  the  blossoms,  and  the  stalks  have  a  fiber 
which  the  people  in  some  districts  use  as  we  do  flax.  We 
ask  how  the  sunflowers  are  raised,  and  are  told  that  the 
seeds  are  sown  very  late  in  the  fall  or  in  the  early  spring, 
and  harvested  in  the  summer.  The  seed  is  drilled  in  rows 
about  eighteen  inches  apart,  and  the  plants  thinned  out  so 
that  there  is  a  space  of  a  foot  or  so  between  them.  An 
acre  of  plants  should  yield  about  fifty  bushels  of  seed. 

We  are  interested  in  the  shipping  of  the  Volga.  The 
river  is  filled  with  vessels  from  Nizhni  Novgorod  to  the  sea. 
We  go  by  many  passenger  steamers,  past  great  barges 
loaded  with  grain,  and  tank  ships  of  petroleum  on  their 
way  from  the  oil  fields  below  the  Caucasus  Mountains  to 
the  railroads  and  factories  of  the  north.  We  pass  enor- 
mous rafts  of  lumber,  each  with  a  neat  house  upon  it, 


DOWN  THE  VOLGA  TO  THE  CASPIAN  SEA.  35/ 

where  the  lumbermen  live  during  the  voyage.  The  rafts 
come  from  the  northern  forests,  where  the  timber  was  cut, 
and  the  lumbermen  will  sell  both  timber  and  houses  when 
they  reach  their  destination  in  one  of  the  towns  of  the  tree- 
less plains  farther  down  stream.  Nearer  the  shore  are 
small  boats  towed  along  from  the  banks  by  horses  and  by 
red-shirted  peasants ;  there  are  fishing  boats  here  and 
there,  and  other  craft  of  every  description. 

We  are  more  than  four  days  on  the  river  before  we 
reach  Astrachan,  at  the  head  of  the  delta  of  the  Volga, 
where  it  divides  into  about  two  hundred  mouths  and  flows 
on  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  Here  the  river  is  wide;  its  volume 
increases  with  the  floods  of  the  spring,  when  it  becomes 
a  great  sea,  from  ten  to  twenty-five  miles  broad,  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  its  mouth.  Even  here  the  Volga  is 
frozen  for  three  months,  and  above  Nizhni  Novgorod  it  is 
covered  with  ice  for  five  or  six  months  every  year. 

Astrachan  is  the  chief  port  for  the  Caspian  Sea,  al- 
though it  is  situated  about  eighty  miles  north  of  it.  It  is 
a  very  old  city,  largely  inhabited  by  the  fishermen  of  the 
Caspian,  and  having  a  vast  trade  in  fish  as  well  as  in  wool 
and  other  products  of  the  region  about  it.  We  visit  the 
establishments  where  they  are  putting  up  caviar  for  export, 
and  then  take  steamer  for  Baku,  the  chief  port  of  the  Rus- 
sian oil  regions  on  the  Caspian  Sea. 

It  takes  us  all  day  to  get  to  the  mouth  of  the  Volga, 
and  we  are  more  than  another  day  in  sailing  on  to  Baku. 
The  Caspian  is  rough,  for  a  storm  rises  when  we  are  far 
out  from  land,  and  in  our  little  vessel  we  are  rolled  about 
more  than  we  were  during  our  passage  across  the  Atlantic. 
The  Caspian  is  the  largest  of  all  inland  seas,  and  the 
winds  from  the  Russian  steppes  roll  up  immense  billows 
upon  it     The  water  is  salt,  and  the  spray  which  is  dashed 


358  RUSSIA. 

in  our  faces  makes  us  think  of  the  ocean.  We  are  now 
ninety  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  Black  Sea,  which  we 
left  at  Odessa,  and  as  we  near  Baku  we  are  in  sight  of  the 
Caucasus  Mountains,  the  southern  boundary  of  European 
Russia. 

When  we  leave  the  steamer  we  step  out  on  the  soil  of 
Asia,  but  as  the  oil  fields  are  closely  associated  with  Euro- 
pean Russia,  we  have  decided  to  include  them  in  our 
tour.  They  begin  at  Baku.  The  strip  in  which  they  are 
found  is  only  a  few  miles  in  width,  but  it  is  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  long. 

We  seem  to  be  steaming  through  oil  as  we  come  into 
the  harbor.  The  water  is  coated  with  it,  and  there  is  a 
strong  smell  of  petroleum  from  the  great  tank  ships,  and 
from  the  trains  of  tank  cars  as  well  as  from  the  pipes 
which  bring  the  oil  into  the  city.  We  ask  for  a  drink 
of  fresh  water,  and  when  it  is  brought  we  taste  it,  and 
then  hand  it  back  in  disgust,  for  it  has  the  flavor  of  kero- 
sene. In  Baku  much  of  the  cooking  is  done  with  oil, 
and  the  factories  use  oil  for  fuel.  The  city  for  a  long 
time  was  lighted  with  oil,  and  everything  we  see  seems 
mixed  with  it. 

The  train  which  carries  us  through  the  oil  region  burns 
petroleum.  We  ride  for  miles  through  a  forest  of  black 
towers  sixty  feet  high,  each  standing  above  an  oil  well ; 
and  when  at  last  we  get  out  of  the  cars  and  walk  on  the 
ground,  the  oil  oozes  out  under  our  feet.  The  scenes  are 
somewhat  like  those  of  the  oil  regions  of  the  United  States, 
save  that,  instead  of  the  skeleton-like  derricks  which  stand 
over  our  wells,  we  have  here  towers  like  pyramids  boarded 
up,  and  as  black  as  though  they  were  covered  with  pitch. 
At  each  tower  is  a  shed  for  tHe  engine  used  for  boring 
the  well,  also  for  pumping  oil.     The  black  on  the  tower 


DOWN  THE  VOLGA   TO  THE  CASPIAN   SEA. 


359 


has  come  from  the  oil  and  sand  which  spouted  forth  from 
the  well  when  the  oil  was  first  struck. 

The  petroleum  of  this  part  of  the  world  is  nearer  the 
surface  than  in  our  oil  fields.  Some  of  the  wells  are  only 
two  hundred  feet  deep,  and  many  are  less  than  a  thousand 
feet  deep.  When  a  good  well  is  first  struck,  the  oil  often 
bursts  forth  to  a  great  height,  falling  in  a  dense  shower  all 


"  —  a  forest  of  black  towers." 

about.  Sometimes  so  much  oil  comes  from  the  foun- 
tain wells  that  it  is  impossible  to  save  it,  and  it  flows  off 
in  streams  over  the  land.  Ditches  are  then  dug  to  carry 
it  to  the  reservoirs,  and  we  see  streams  of  oil,  ponds  of  oil, 
and  great  tanks  of  oil  everywhere.  From  one  well  bored 
some  years  ago,  the  oil  spouted  up  to  the  height  of  four 
hundred  feet,  and  it  kept  spouting  for  months;  so  that 
within  less  than  two  years  it  produced  enough  petroleum 


36o  RUSSIA. 

to  fill  a  ditch  more  than  a  yard  wide  and  a  hundred  miles 
long,  and  deep  enough  to  cover  the  head  of  a  man  stand- 
ing upright  within  it. 

As  we  proceed,  we  see  more  and  more  evidences  of  the 
great  extent  of  the  Russian  oil  fields.  There  are  five  hun- 
dred ships  on  the  Caspian  Sea  which  carry  nothing  but  oil ; 
vast  amounts  are  shipped  to  Russia  and  other  parts  of 
Europe ;  and  trains  of  tank  cars  are  always  carrying  petro- 
leum and  kerosene  to  the  Black  Sea;  from  there  it^is 
shipped  through  the  strait  of  the  Bosporus  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea  to  Asia,  Africa,  South  America,  and  Europe. 
The  United  States  now  sells  more  oil  than  any  other  coun- 
try, but  Russia  is  competing  with  it  in  the  markets  of  the 
world ;  and  as  we  ride  on  and  on  through  these  forests  of 
black  towers,  we  wonder  whether  Russia  may  not  at  some 
time  surpass  the  United  States  in  exporting  petroleum. 

From  the  oil  regions  we  take  a  train  for  Tiflis,  the  capi- 
tal of  the  Russian  dominions  in  Transcaucasia,  a  territory 
which  is  as  large  as  France,  and  which  contains  more  than 
eight  million  people.  The  city  is  a  beautiful  one  of  about 
two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  It  lies  in  a  valley  with 
vineyards  about  it,  with  rocky  heights  farther  back,  and 
with  many  snow-clad  peaks  far  off  in  the  distance.  We 
are  now  in  the  heart  of  the  Caucasus  Mountains,  but  on 
the  lower  side  of  the  range,  and  quite  a  long  way  from 
Mount  Elburz,  the  highest  of  these  mountains,  and  also 
the  highest  mountain  of  Europe. 

The  people  of  Tiflis  are  chiefly  Asiatics.  We  see  many 
strange  faces  and  costumes  as  we  ride  about  the  towns  and 
shop  in  the  bazaars ;  and  we  feel  that  we  might  linger  for 
weeks  here  in  Asia  had  we  not  a  large  part  of  Europe  yet 
to  explore.  We  visit  the  different  quarters  of  the  city,  buy 
a  few  things  of  the  Persian,  Turkish,  and  An.  enian  mer- 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


361 


Tiflis. 


chants  in  the  markets,  and  then  take  the  train  through  the 
Caucasus  to  Batoum  on  the  Black  Sea,  where  we  find  a 
ship  which  within  a  few  days  will  land  us  in  Constantinople, 
the  capital  of  Turkey. 


>>•?€ 


XXXVII.     IN    CONSTANTINOPLE. 


THE  strait  of  the  Bosporus,  which  connects  the  big 
Black  Sea  with  the  little  Sea  of  Marmora  and  the 
Mediterranean,  winds  in  and  out  through  a  deep  mountain 
valley  which  here  lies  between  Europe  and  Asia.  The 
hills  in  some  places  slope  almost  precipitously  down  to  the 
water,  and  in  other  places  great  cliffs  overhang  it.  Here 
and  there  along  the  strait  are  the  palaces  of  the  Sultan 


362  TURKEY. 

and  of  Turkish  nobles,  interspersed  with  fishermen's  huts 
and  peasant  villages,  with  rich  farms  and  forests.  There 
are  castles  and  fortresses  on  some  of  the  hills,  and  the 
scenery  often  reminds  us  of  the  'Rhine  and  the  Danube. 

The  Bosporus  is  one  of  the  great  water  highways  between 
Europe  and  Asia,  and  vast  cargoes  of  grain,  oil,  wool,  and 
other  products  are  always  passing  back  and  forth  through 
it.  The  strait  is  only  nineteen  miles  long,  but  so  wide  and 
deep  that  the  largest  ocean  steamers  can  easily  navigate  it. 

At  the  southern  end  of  the  strait,  where  it  empties  into 
the  Sea  of  Marmora,  there  is  a  lofty  little  peninsula,  a 
tongue  of  land  extending  far  out,  and  almost  blocking  the 
entrance.  The  northern  side  of  this  peninsula  is  bordered 
by  a  horn-shaped  inlet  which  forms  a  wide  and  deep  harbor, 
so  covered  with  rich  shipping  that  it  is  called  the  Golden 
Horn.  The  peninsula  itself  is  not  much  larger  than  a  big 
Texas  farm,  but  it  is  the  site  of  Constantinople,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  cities  of  the  world  (see  map,  p.  382). 

We  have  learned  that  there  is  always  a  reason  for  cities 
being  situated  just  where  they  are.  Even  as  villages  are 
built  at  country  crossroads  to  catch  the  business  of  the 
people  moving  each  way,  so  cities  grow  up  on  the  great 
highways  of  commerce,  and  especially  where  such  high- 
ways cross.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  growth  of 
Constantinople.  It  is  at  the  chief  crossroads  of  Europe 
and  Asia.  The  grand  divisions  here  come  close  together, 
and  goods  brought  in  by  caravan  for  Europe  can  be  easily 
shipped  over  the  narrow  strait  to  Constantinople,  from 
where  they  can  be  sent  on  to  the  northward.  Moreover, 
Constantinople  occupies  the  best  position  on  the  great  water 
road  of  the  Bosporus  which  connects  the  whole  world  with 
the  Black  Sea  and  all  parts  of  eastern  Europe.  The  Golden 
Horn  gives  Constantinople  an  excellent  harbor,  and  its  situ- 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


363 


ation  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bosporus  makes  it  really  the 
chief  port  of  the  Danube,  the  Dnieper,  the  Don,  and  the 
other  great  rivers  which  empty  into  the  Black  Sea,  and 
as  such  it  has  always  had  a  great  trade.  The  city  also  has 
the  advantage  of  being  easily  defended.  There  are  high- 
lands about  it,  upon  which  are  great  fortifications,  and  forts 


m 

pTii^^BBBB^^^^^'^^^^^^^^^H 

■  2-  '"^^s,  f 

■w-*r-i"  •  "«*- 

•r     1  %{nBaiH^^__                  .^B^I^^^H 

;  ,:T        -■  'iCEjJiyMH^. 

"' 

BBfc'^MBHBBlft              aj^^^^H 

^■^^ 

Is.     ri-'ife 

Hgnr'^^^ 

1       '^^'^'m 

•  1 

The  Golden  Horn. 


have  been  erected  along  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosporus, 
so  that  the  Turks  can,  if  they  wish,  prevent  ships  from 
moving  out  and  in  through  the  strait. 

The  site  of  Constantinople  is  so  central  that  a  city 
was  founded  here  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  years 
ago,  under  the  name  of  Byzantium,  which  for  centuries 
was  a  center  of  commerce  and  trade.  About  a  thousand 
years  later  the  Emperor  Constantine  made  it  the  capital 


364  TURKEY. 

of  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  and  called  it  Constantinople. 
For  many  centuries  it  was  a  Roman  city.  Then  it  was 
taken  by  the  Crusaders,  and,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  by  the 
Mohammedan  Turks. 

A  few  years  before  Columbus  started  out  on  his  first 
voyage  to  America,  the  Turks,  a  yellow  race  of  Tartar 
Mohammedans  who  had  overrun  Asia  Minor,  captured 
the  city,  and  extended  their  conquests  farther  on  into 
Europe,  taking  country  after  country  along  the  Danube 
and  elsewhere,  until  they  had  almost  as  much  territory 
as  there  is  in  the  German  Empire  of  to-day.  They  had 
still  larger  possessions  in  Asia  than  in  Europe,  but  they 
so  liked  Constantinople  that  they  chose  it  for  the  capital 
of  their  empire,  and  it  holds  this  position  to-day,  although 
the  greater  part  of  their  European  territories  have  been 
taken  from  them. 

But  we  are  now  at  the  end  of  the  Bosporus,  right  in 
front  of  the  city.  Our  ship  is  slowly  steaming  in  and  out 
among  craft  of  all  kinds.  The  Golden  Horn  in  front  of 
us  is  filled  with  vessels  of  every  description,  and  there  are 
hundreds  of  little  caiques  (ka-eks'),  or  Turkish  gondolas, 
containing  passengers  and  pleasure  hunters,  moving  in 
all  directions.  Steam  launches  and  tugs  are  darting  in 
and  out  through  the  shipping.  The  boats  are  manned 
by  queerly  dressed  sailors,  and  all  our  surroundings  are 
strange. 

We  are  on  the  water,  but  nevertheless  almost  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  city  of  Constantinople.  There  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Golden  Horn  are  the  marble  palaces  of 
the  Sultan,  some  high  up  on  the  hill,  and  others  on  the  edge 
of  the  water ;  while  farther  on  are  the  houses  and  business 
structures  of  Pera,  where  the  most  of  the  Europeans  live. 
At  the  left,  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Bosporus,  a  village  of 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE.  365 

pink  houses  of  curious  shapes  rises  out  of  green  trees.  That 
land  is  Asia,  and  the  town  is  Scutari,  the  suburb  of  Con- 
stantinople, where  the  largest  of  the  Turkish  cemeteries  is 
located,  and  where  many  Turks  who  do  business  in  Con- 
stantinople live.  Before  us  on  the  peninsula  is  spread 
out  the  main  part  of  the  city,  known  as  Stambul,  which 
contains  the  vast  bazaars,  the  hundreds  of  mosques,  and 
the  dwellings  of  most  of  the  million  people  who  make  up 
the  population  of  this  great  Turkish  capital. 

As  we  come  closer  the  city  appears  to  rise  straight  up 
from  the  sea.  There  is  a  low  ruined  wall  about  it,  built 
centuries  ago ;  but  back  of  this  are  palaces,  here  and  there 
on  the  edge  of  the  water,  surrounded  by  green.  The  city 
is  made  up  of  hill  and  hollow,  and  as  it  lies  before  us  it  is 
a  vast  rolling  expanse  of  houses,  with  huge  domes  and  tall 
white  towers  extending  high  above  them.  Each  of  those 
domes  is  on  the  roof  of  one  of  the  great  Mohammedan 
churches  or  mosques,  some  of  which  cover  acres,  and  the 
white  towers  are  their  minarets.  The  minarets  have  gal- 
leries about  them  in  which,  with  our  glasses,  we  can  see 
dark-faced  men  in  turbans  and  gowns  standing,  as  they 
call  the  people  to  prayer.  We  can  hear  their  shrill  tenor 
voices  coming  over  the  water,  and  we  see  the  Moham- 
medans on  our  ship  turn  toward  the  south  in  the  direction 
of  Mecca,  their  holy  city,  and  kneel  down  and  bend  their 
heads  to  the  deck,  as  they  utter  their  prayers. 

Now  we  have  entered  the  Golden  Horn  and  landed  at 
Pera.  We  have  walked  through  the  business  part  of  the 
city  and  gone  down  to  the  bridge  of  boats,  which  is  the 
main  highway  across  to  Stambul.  We  have  paid  our  toll 
to  the  tall  Turk  in  turban  and  gown  at  the  entrance,  and 
are  standing  on  the  bridge  gazing  at  the  strange  throngs 
that  are  moving  back  and  forth  on  their  way  to  and  from 


366 


TURKEY. 


the  great  city.  Constan- 
tinople is  a  mixture  of 
many  strange  races.  It 
has  more  Turks  perhaps 
than  any  other  people,  but 
there  are  thousands  of  Ar- 
menians, Persians,  Circas- 
sians, Greeks,  Georgians, 
and  Jews,  as  well  as  strange 
characters  from  all  parts 
of  Europe  and  southwest- 
ern Asia. 

There  are  scores  of  men 
in  long  gowns,  with  white, 
red,  blue,  or  green  turbans 
about  their  heads.  They 
wear  red  or  yellow  slip- 
pers turned  up  at  the  toes,  which  clap  on  the  boards  as 
they  walk.  Their  faces  are 
dark,  and  their  eyes  some- 
what slanting;  many  have 
long  beards  which  reach 
down  their  breasts.  Most  of 
those  who  dress  in  this  way 
are  Turks,  and  all  are  Mo- 
hammedans. There  are  also 
hundreds  of  dark-faced  men 
wearing  clothes  like  ours, 
but  with  red  fez  caps  on  their 
heads,  and  there  are  boys  in 
red  caps  and  long  gowns. 

But   what    are    those    two       .._^^^h  looks  like  two  mammoth 

curious  creatures  now  com-  sausages." 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


367 


ing  toward  us  ?  As  they  enter  the  bridge,  in  the  distance, 
each  looks  like  two  mammoth  sausages  tied  together  one 
on  top  of  the  other.  Those  are  two  Turkish  women, 
who  have  their  heads  and  faces  so  wrapped  up  that  they 
hardly    seem    human.  .  >  ,5 

Their  dresses  look  like 
balloons,  for  their  outer 
clothing  hides  their 
forms  as  they  walk 
through  the  street. 
Now  they  are  closer, 
and  we  see  that  each 
wears  a  veil,  so  that 
only  the  eyes  and  a 
strip  of  the  forehead 
are  visible.  One  of  the 
women  has  a  black  ser- 
vant with  her,  a  slave 
who  is  going  along  to 
guard  and  protect  her. 
Mohammedan  women 
do  not  show  their  faces 
on  the  street;  and 
indoors  they  are  rarely 
seen  by  any  other 
men  than  their  hus- 
bands. 

Get  out  of  the  way 
of  that  porter!  Don't  you  see  the  enormous  box  he  is 
carrying  on  his  back,  bending  over  so  that  he  can  hardly 
look  up  ?  He  is  one  of  the  drays  of  Constantinople,  and 
he  competes  with  the  donkey  and  the  camel  for  his  share 
of  the  freight.     There  are  but  few  heavy  vehicles  in  the 


we  see  that  each  wears  a  veil." 


368 


TURKEY. 


—  as  much  as  five 
hundred  pounds." 


city.  Trunks  and  boxes  of  all  kinds  are  carried  about  by 
the  porters,  called  hamals  (ha-mals'),  who  rest  their  bur- 
dens on  saddles  fastened  to  their  backs. 
Some  of  them  are  so  strong  they  can 
carry  as  much  as  five  hundred  pounds 
at  one  load. 

But  let  us  walk  over  the  bridge,  keep- 
ing close  to  the  railing  and  out  of  the 
way  of  the  carriages,  donkeys,  and 
camels,  and  of  the  turbaned  soldiers  rid- 
ing Arabian  horses.  We  walk  behind  a 
Greek  priest,  who  strolls  along  arm  and 
arm  with  a  Circassian  in  uniform,  wear- 
ing a  high  cap  of  astrakhan  fur.  As  we 
go  on  we  are  accosted  by  beggars  in  tur- 
bans. We  pass  peddlers  and  hucksters 
dressed  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow, 
and  selling  all  kinds  of  goods.  We  stop  one  for  a  drink 
from  a  great  bottle  of  lemonade  which  he  carries  on  his 
back,  and  from  another  we  buy  some  of  the  Turkish  fig 
paste  for  which  Constantinople  is  famous. 

Now  we  have  left  the  bridge  and  are  making  our  way 
through  the  city.  The  streets  are  narrow  and  winding. 
They  are  paved  with  cobblestones,  and  in  many  places  are 
dirty  and  filthy.  What  a  lot  of  dogs  there  are  everywhere ; 
many  lie  asleep  on  the  stones  so  that  we  have  to  kick  them 
to  get  them  out  of  our  way.  They  put  their  tails  between 
their  legs  and  move  off  growling,  for  they  are  poor-spirited 
curs  and  are  perhaps  the  leanest  dogs  of  the  world.  They 
excite  a  pathetic  interest,  for  they  have  no  masters.  They 
belong  to  the  city  and  their  only  homes  are  the  streets. 
The  Turks  never  think  of  letting  dogs  come  into  their 
houses,  for  they  consider  them  unclean,  so  that,  although 


IN  CONSTANTINOPLE. 


369 


Constantinople  has  thousands  of  dogs,  no  man  in  the  city 
owns  a  dog.  Each  dog  has  its  own  quarter,  however,  and 
when  a  stray  cur  comes  into  a  strange  alley,  the  dogs  of 
the  alley  pounce  upon  him  and  drive  him  out.  The  dogs 
serve  as  the  scavengers,  and  they  seem  to  be  the  only 
street  cleaners  of  Constantinople. 


"  —  a  town  of  stores  all  under  one  roof." 

But  here  we  are  at  the  bazaars,  where  we  can  learn  how 
they  do  business  in  this  great  Mohammedan  city.  We  push 
our  way  through  the  crowds  at  the  entrance,  and  enter  a 
town  of  stores  all  under  one  roof.  There  are  acres  upon 
acres  of  little  cell-like  shops  ranged  along  narrow  cobble- 
stone streets,  lighted  here  and  there  by  small  domes. 
Some  of  the  stores  are  not  bigger  than  packing  boxes. 
Here  is  one  so  small  that  it  is  entirely  filled  by  the  mer- 


370  TURKEY. 

chant,  who  sits  cross-legged  on  the  floor,  with  his  goods 
piled  around  him.  Other  shops  are  larger ;  and  many  are 
furnished  with  divans  upon  which  long-gowned,  long- 
bearded  men  sit,  and  smoke  and  drink  coffee  as  they  bar- 
gain. The  floors  of  some  of  the  stores  are  as  high  as  a 
chair,  and  we  sit  on  the  floor  with  our  feet  in  the  street  as 
we  shop. 

All  business  is  done  by  bargaining,  and  it  takes  us  a 
long  time  to  make  every  purchase.  It  is  customary  to  find 
fault  with  the  goods,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  our  guide  we 
offer  only  about  one  third  the  amount  that  the  merchant 
demands.  If  he  refuses  we  come  up  a  few  cents,  and  if 
he  will  make  no  reduction  whatever,  start  away  expecting 
to  be  called  back,  as  is  often  the  case,  although  he  protests 
that  such  sales  will  ruin  his  business.  There  are  no  fixed 
prices,  and  the  Turkish  dealer  takes  all  he  can  get. 

In  many  of  the  bazaars  the  turbaned  storekeeper  sends 
out  a  servant  for  coffee,  and  we  drink  as  we  bargain.  The 
coffee  is  served  without  cream,  in  a  little  cup  no  bigger 
than  half  an  eggshell.  It  is  as  thick  as  chocolate,  and 
almost  as  sweet  as  molasses;  we  are  told  that  it  is  made 
of  the  roasted  coffee  beans  pounded  to  a  fine  powder. 
We  grow  very  fond  of  it,  although  it  seems  more  like  a 
sweet  syrup  than  coffee. 

We  devote  a  long  time  to  the  bazaars,  strolling  about 
through  one  narrow  street  after  another.  Each  section 
has  its  own  kind  of  goods.  We  walk  through  roofed  alleys 
walled  with  slippers  and  shoes  of  the  brightest  of  colors, 
and  of  all  grades  and  prices.  There  are  men's  shoes  of 
red  leather  made  without  heels,  and  with  the  toes  turned 
up  at  the  ends  like  an  old-fashioned  skate.  There  are 
ladies'  shoes  of  fine  silk  in  the  most  delicate  shades  of 
pearl,  pink,  and  sky  blue,  some  of  which  are  covered  with 


AMONG  THE  MOHAMMEDANS.  3/1 

gold  and  silver  embroidery.  We  each  buy  a  pair  of  chil- 
dren's shoes  to  take  home.  They  are  of  red  leather,  with 
a  tassel  of  wool  on  each  toe  as  big  as  a  walnut.  Under 
the  tassel  is  a  bell,  so  that  some  of  the  little  Turks  actually 
go  about  with  bells  on  their  toes. 

We  stay  some  time  in  the  Persian  bazaars,  looking  at 
beautiful  shawls  and  other  things  from  that  country,  buy  a 
fez  cap  apiece  in  the  fez  shops,  and  in  the  perfumery  sec- 
tion lay  in  a  supply  of  attar  of  roses,  for  this  is  the  land  of 
that  delightful  perfume.  In  European  Turkey  there  are 
vast  rose  farms  each  containing  many  thousands  of  bushes. 
The  roses  are  picked  when  in  full  bloom,  and  from  their 
leaves  is  extracted  an  oil,  the  scent  of  which  is  so  strong 
that  a  drop  of  it  put  into  a  box  of  clothing  will  make  it 
smell  like  roses  for  weeks.  This  oil  is  called  attar  of  roses. 
Vast  quantities  of  it  are  sold  in  Constantinople,  and  a  great 
deal  is  exported  to  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Passing  through  the  spice  bazaar,  we  enter  streets  where 
scores  of  merchants  are  selling  the  oriental  carpets  and 
rugs  for  which  Turkey  is  famous.  The  rugs  are  made  on 
hand  looms  by  the  women  and  girls  in  different  parts 
of,  the  empire.  The  work  is  done  in  their  homes,  and  it 
takes  them  a  long  time  to  make  a  fine  rug.  Only  a  few 
square  inches  can  be  made  in  one  day,  and  the  larger  rugs 
require  many  months  of  continuous  work. 

XXXVIII.     AMONG   THE   MOHAMMEDANS. 

OUR  first  business  this  morning  is  to  learn  something 
of  the  Turkish  empire  and  how  it  is  governed.  We 
leave  our  hotel  and  go  to  the  Sublime  Porte,  a  vast  build- 
ing which  contains  the  chief  public  offices  of  the  Sultan. 

CARP.    EUROPE — a.'? 


372 


TURKEY. 


We  are  met  at  the  door  by  the  guards,  one  of  whom  takes 
us  through  room  after  room  filled  with  clerks,  each  wearing 
a  turban  or  a  red  fez  cap  on  his  head.  Some  wear  Euro- 
pean clothes,  and  a  few  have  on  long  gowns  like  the  mer- 
chants of  the  bazaars. 


•*  —  the  Sublime  Porte,  a  vast  building  which  contains  the  public  offices 
of  the  Sultan." 

The  Sultan  has  thousands  of  clerks  who  aid  him  in 
managing  the  affairs  of  his  empire.  He  is  an  absolute 
ruler,  but  he  has  a  council  of  ministers  much  like  the  Cabi- 
net of  our  President.  His  chief  officer,  who  has  charge  of 
all  civil  affairs,  is  called  the  Grand  Vizier,  and  another  very 
great  man  is  the  Sheik-ul-Islam,  or  chief  of  the  Church, 


AMONG  THE  MOHAMMEDANS. 


373 


who  has  to  do  with  all  matters  relating  to  the  Mohamme- 
dans in  Constantinople  and  throughout  the  empire.  Not 
only  is  the  Sultan  the  civil  ruler  of  the  Turkish  people,  but 
he  is  the  head  of  the  Mohammedan  religion,  which  is  pro- 
fessed by  more  than  one  hundred  million  people  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world. 

The  Turkish  Empire,  all  told,  including  its  tributary 
countries,  has  a  territory  half  as  large  as  the  United 
States,  without  Alaska,  but  the  most  of  the  empire  is  in 
Asia.  The  European  possessions  of  the  Turks  have  for 
years  been  steadily  decreasing. 
Country  after  country  has  been 
taken  from  them  by  Russia  and 
Austria,  and  the  Sultan  is  now  able 
to  hold  Constantinople,  and  his  re- 
maining territories  north  of  the 
Bosporus,  only  by  the  consent  of 
the  great  powers  who  fear  Russia, 
and  think  Europe  will  be  safer 
from  her  as  long  as  the  entrance 
to  the  Black  Sea  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  Turks. 

All  the  countries  of  European 
Turkey  combined  are  not  so  large 
as  some  of  our  Western  states.  They  now  comprise  only 
a  part  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  a  rich  land,  inhabited  by 
many  different  peoples,  much  like  those  we  saw  on  our 
trip  down  the  Danube.  There  are  Roumanians,  Servians, 
Bulgarians,  Slavs,  Albanians,  Armenians,  gypsies,  and  a 
great  many  Turks.  About  one  half  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion is  Mohamrnedan ;  and  of  the  other  half  the  most  be- 
long to  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  which  we  learned 
about  during  our  travels  in  Russia. 


Turkish  Officer. 


374  TURKEY. 

The  people  throughout  the  whole  Turkish  Empire  are 
poor.  The  Sultan  and  his  officials  prey  upon  them  by 
demanding  large  taxes.  The  laws  provide  that  one  tenth 
of  all  the  crops  shall  go  to  the  Sultan,  and  the  officials 
come  out  to  the  harvest  fields  and  carry  away  their  share 
of  the  grain.  There  are  also  heavy  taxes  on  imports  and 
exports,  so  that  the  people  cannot  save  money.  Men  will 
not  work  hard  in  a  country  where  the  government  takes 
the  lion's  share  of  the  profits ;  the  result  is  that  there  are 
comparatively  few  industries  in  Turkey,  and  the  minerals 
and  other  resources  are  but  little  developed. 

In  European  Turkey  the  people  live  chiefly  by  farming 
and  stock  raising.  They  dwell  in  villages,  having  but  few 
large  towns,  and  only  about  a  dozen  cities  of  more  than 
twenty  thousand  inhabitants.  The  largest  city  outside 
Constantinople  is  Saloniki.  It  is  on  the  ^gean  Sea,  and 
has  a  railroad  connection  with  other  parts  of  Europe.  It 
has  an  excellent  harbor,  and  is  becoming  a  commercial 
port,  as  it  is  on  the  shortest  sea  route  from  London  to  the 
Suez  Canal.  Another  important  city  is  Adrianople,  situ- 
ated where  the  road  from  Constantinople  to  Vienna  crosses 
that  from  Bulgaria  to  the  sea.  It  is  also  the  center 
of  the  rose-growing  region,  where  the  attar  of  roses  we 
bought  in  the  bazaar  is  made. 

'  We  observe  that  education  is  backward  in  Turkey. 
The  chief  teachers  are  the  Mohammedan  priests,  and  the 
schools  are  largely  connected  with  the  mosques,  or  Mo- 
hammedan churches.  Very  few  of  the  cities  have  any 
modern  improvements,  and  everything  is  somewhat  Asiatic. 
European  Turkey  is  a  Mohammedan  country,  ruled  by 
Mohammedans,  and  all  of  our  surroundings  show  the  evil 
effects  that  Mohammedanism  has  upon  the  people,  and 
their  advancement  in  civihzation  and  wealth. 


AMONG  THE   MOHAMMEDANS. 


375 


"The  people  live  chiefly  by  farming. 


But  let  US  go  to  the  mosques,  and  see  something  of 
this  interesting  religion  which  is  professed  by  about  one 
fifteenth  of  the  population  of  the  globe.  There  are  more 
than  two  thousand  mosques  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  and 
about  three  hundred  of  the  finest  of  them  are  in  Con- 
stantinople. Our  first  visit  is  to  Santa  Sophia,  the 
largest  mosque  of  the  world.  It  was  built  as  a  Chris- 
tian church  centuries  ago ;  ten  thousand  masons  worked 
upon  it  for  seven  years,  and  one  hundred  architects  were 
required  to  oversee  its  construction.  It  had  doors  of 
ivory,  amber,  and  cedar,  and  its  altar  was  made  of  precious 
stones,  embedded  in  gold.  The  finest  temples  of  Ephesus, 
Thebes,  Athens,  and   Rome  were   robbed  of  columns  in 


3/6  TURKEY. 

order  to  decorate  it,  and  it  was  a  huge  mass  of  precious 
marbles,  gold,  and  jewels.  When  the  Turks  conquered 
Constantinople  they  destroyed  much  of  its  beauty.  They 
defaced  the  paintings,  and  tore  down  the  altars,  and  turned 
it  into  a  mosque.  Nevertheless,  it  is  still  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  the  world's  churches,  and  one  of  the  largest. 
It  covers  almost  as  much  ground  as  the  Capitol  at  Wash- 


Interior  of  Santa  Sophia. 

ington,  being  built  in  the  shape  of  a  Greek  cross ;  it  is 
covered  with  a  vast  roof  upheld  by  a  forest  of  columns 
with  a  grand  dome  in  the  center. 

But  let  us  go  in  and  see  for  ourselves.  We  shall  first 
enter  the  court.  There  are  turbaned,  long-gowned  Turks 
guarding  the  doors,  and  we  are  asked  to  take  off  our  shoes  ; 
for  the  Mohammedans  consider  their  churches  holy,  and  no 
one  is  permitted  to  enter  them  with  his  shoes  on.  There 
are  fountains,  in  the  court,  and  about  them  are  hundreds 


AMONG  THE  MOHAMMEDANS.  377 

of  Turks  washing  themselves  before  they  go  in  to  pray. 
The  good  Mohammedan  prays  five  times  every  day,  and  he 
washes  his  face,  hands,  and  feet  before  every  prayer. 

We  walk  through  corridor  after  corridor  of  the  great 
mosque,  and  later  attend  one  of  the  evening  services, 
held  in  the  light  of  its  thousands  of  lamps.  We  stand  in 
the  galleries  above  great  stars  of  flame,  which  seem  to  be 
floating  in  the  air  between  the  dome  and  the  floor.  Every 
pillar  and  every  alcove  is  ablaze,  and  the  galleries  are 
walled  with  fire.  The  service  has  already  begun  when  we 
enter  the  building.  The  floor  below  us  is  covered  with 
worshipers.  There  are  at  least  five  thousand  Moham- 
medans on  their  knees,  with  their  faces  toward  Mecca, 
on  that  floor  below  us.  In  turbans  and  gowns,  with  their 
shoes  in  front  of  them,  and  their  bare  feet  turned  up  to 
the  gallery,  they  form  long  Hues  of  color  upon  the  white 
mats  away  down  there  under  the  floating  flames.  They 
are  all  praying  in  response  to  the  shrill  cries  of  the  iman, 
or  priest,  who  stands  in  the  pulpit  at  one  end  of  the 
vast  church,  and  leads  the  service.  He  utters  a  sentence, 
and  the  long  lines  of  turbaned  men  below  us  rise  and  fall 
like  clockwork  in  their  devotions.  Now  they  stand  upon 
their  feet.  Now  they  kneel  down  in  prayer,  and  the  strik- 
ing of  ten  thousand  knees  upon  the  floor  sounds  Hke  the 
rumbling  of  cannon  in  the  distance.  Now  they  bend  their 
heads  to  the  mats,  and  the  sound  comes  up  like  the  fall 
of  a  great  weight,  rather  than  the  touch  of  thousands  of 
human  heads. 

The  Mohammedan  prayers  and  methods  of  praying  are 
fixed  by  the  Koran,  or  Mohammedan  Bible,  and  the  peo- 
ple all  pray  the  same  way.  They  are  not  ashamed  of 
their  religion,  and  we  see  them  reading  their  Korans  in 
their  stores,  and  kneeling  down  at  their  prayers  in  the 


378 


TURKEY. 


bazaars.  We  observe  them  praying  in  the  fields  outside 
Constantinople,  and  near  every  mosque  see  thousands  of 
them  washing  themselves  before  going  in. 

We  look  at  one  of  the  Korans.  It  is  printed  in  Arabic 
characters,  and  we  cannot  understand  it.  We  are  told, 
however,  that  it  contains  not  only  the  religion  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans, but  also  many  of   their  laws,  and  that   the 


IL 

1 

^i 

msiti 

^******ii 

*'He  has  his  own  mosque." 

Sultan  in  governing  his  empire  is  supposed  to  follow^  its 
teachings.  The  Sultan  is  required  to  be  a  devout  Moham- 
medan. He  has  his  own  mosque  not  far  from  his  palace, 
where  he  goes  to  pray  on  Friday,  which  is  the  Moham- 
medan Sunday.  Once  a  year  he  makes  a  great  show  of 
kissing  the  mantle  of  the  prophet  Mohammed,  which  is 
kept  as  a  precious  relic  in  Stambul. 

During  our.  stay  in  Constantinople  we  visit  the  Seraglio 


AMONG  THE  MOHAMMEDANS.  379 

(se-ral'yo)  in  which  is  the  old  treasury  of  the  Sultan,  and 
later  we  drive  out  past  the  palace  of  Yildiz,  where  His 
Majesty  lives.  His  grounds  contain  many  acres  of  for- 
ests and  gardens,  in  which  are  ravines,  lakes,  and  bab- 
bling brooks,  for  he  has  a  large  income,  although  his 
people  are  so  poor.  He  has  altogether  over  thirty  pal- 
aces, and  keeps  thousands  of  servants.  There  are  a  hun- 
dred porters,  for  instance,  and  it  takes  hundreds  of  cooks 
to  prepare  the  food  for  the  palace. 

In  the  Sultan's  stables  there  are  two  thousand  horses, 
and  the  finest  of  all  the  Arabian  horses  are  sent  to  him. 
He  has  many  slave  girls  as  wives,  according  to  law ;  and 
formerly  the  most  beautiful  women  that  could  be  found 
in  Georgia  and  other  parts  of  the  Caucasus  Mountains, 
regions  where  the  women  are  noted  for  their  beauty,  were 
bought,  and  brought  here  to  be  made  members  of  his  im- 
mense family. 

According  to  the  Mohammedan  law,  every  true  believer 
has  the  right  to  four  wives,  although  most  Mohammedans, 
for  several  reasons,  have  only  one.  One  reason  is  that  the 
better  class  women  do  but  httle  work,  and  only  a  rich  man 
can  support  several  wives.  Another  reason,  so  the  Turks 
tell  us,  is  that  with  one  wife  a  man  may  have  peace  in  his 
family,  but  that  more  than  one  often  bring  trouble  and 
discord. 

When  we  visit  the  Mohammedans  in  their  homes,  only 
the  girls  of  our  party  are  permitted  to  go  into  the  women's 
apartments.  It  is  not  polite  for  a  man  to  ask  after  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  his  friends.  The  sexes  are  kept 
apart,  and  a  young  man  seldom  sees  his  betrothed  until 
the  wedding.  The  marriage  is  all  arranged  by  the  par- 
ents, and  the  young  people  are  supposed  to  take  without 
question  whomsoever  their  fathers  and  mothers  select. 


38o  TURKEY. 

In  many  Mohammedan  families  the  men  and  women  do 
not  eat  together,  nor  do  they  associate  with  one  another  at 
parties;  and  as  we  have  seen,  whenever  a  woman  goes 
about  on  the  street,  she  keeps  her  face  well  covered. 

The  Turks  are  very  polite.  They  are  continually  making 
elaborately  courteous  remarks  to  one  another.  When  we 
meet  them,  they  accost  us  by  saying  in  Turkish,  "  May 
thy  day  be  happy,"  and  if  we  would  be  as  polite  as  they 
are,  we  must  reply,  "  May  thy  day  be  happy  and  blessed." 

They  are  very  hospitable,  and  we  are  frequently  asked 
out  to  dinner.  They  usually  eat  but  two  meals  a  day,  one 
at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  the  other  at  sunset, 
although  they  may  take  a  cup  of  coffee  on  rising.  They 
do  not  use  tables,  but  have  their  meals  served  on  trays, 
some  of  which  are  as  large  around  as  a  washtub.  In  the 
center  of  each  tray  is  a  mat  on  which  the  hot  dishes  are 
put  with  the  salt,  pepper,  pickles,  and  other  such  things 
about  them,  new  trays  being  brought  in  with  the  different 
courses.  At  a  real  Turkish  meal,  in  the  interior,  every 
person  has  his  own  spoon,  and  helps  himself  to  the  soup 
in  his  turn.  Meat  and  other  viands  are  often  brought 
on  cut  in  small  pieces,  and  are  eaten  with  the  fingers. 
The  people  are  very  dainty  in  using  their  fingers,  touching 
the  food  only  with  the  thumb  and  two  first  fingers,  or  dip- 
ping it  out  with  a  piece  of  bread  doubled  up  and  held  in 
the  hand.  One  Turk  being  asked  if  he  did  not  think  our 
way  was  more  cleanly,  said,  "  Every  one  knows  whether 
he  has  washed  his  fingers,  but  you  never  can  tell  who 
washes  the  knives  and  forks ! " 

We  find  the  food  very  good.  One  of  the  most  com- 
mon dishes  is  pilaf  (pe'laf),  made  of  rice  and  chopped 
meat  stewed  together.  This  is  served  at  almost  every 
dinner,  and  when  well  cooked  is  delicious.     We  enjoy  the 


IN  MODERN  GREECE.  38 1 

Turkish  fig  paste  and  the  nougat,  or  candy  of  nuts  and 
sugar,  and  also  the  rose  jam  which  the  servant  brings  in 
with  a  glass  of  water  and  a  spoon.  We  eat  the  jam  in 
the  approved  Turkish  fashion,  taking  first  a  spoonful  of 
jam,  and  then  a  swallow  of  water,  which  dissolves  the  jam 
and  leaves  a  taste  of  perfume  in  the  mouth. 


>>•«« 


XXXIX.     IN    MODERN   GREECE. 

HOW  would  you  like  to  make  a  trip  into  Fairyland .> 
There  is  a  little  country  not  far  from  Constantinople 
from  which  have  come  some  of  the  strangest  stories  evei 
told.  There  are  stories  of  huge  giants  who  breathed  forth 
fire  and  flame,  who  were  conquered  by  Hercules ;  stories 
of  Pegasus,  a  horse  which  had  wings  so  that  it  flew  through 
the  air,  carrying  its  master  over  mountains  and  seas ;  stories 
of  lo,  a  beautiful  maiden  who  was  turned  into  a  snow- 
white  cow  through  the  jealousy  of  the  goddess  Juno  ;  and 
stories  of  the  soldiers  of  Ulysses,  who  among  their  other 
experiences  were  changed  into  swine  by  the  wicked  witch 
Circe.  There  are  stories  of  gods  and  goddesses,  of  sweet 
singing  sirens,  of  horrible  harpies  who  were  half  bird  and 
half  woman,  of  centaurs  who  were  half  horse  and  half 
man ;  so  many  strange  stories,  in  fact,  that  I  must  not 
stop  even  to  mention  them  all.  You  may  read  of  them, 
perhaps,  in  the  poems  of  Homer,  who  lived  there  several 
thousand  years  ago,  or  in  the  "  Tanglewood  Tales"  and 
"  Wonder  Book  "  of  our  own  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  who 
has  retold  these  old  stories  in  a  beautiful  way. 
y  This  wonderful  land  is  Greece.  It  is  a  little  country  con- 
sisting of  some  mountainous  islands  and  the  mountainous 


382 


OREECt. 


C.Matap?n    l-^-Malia 

y$>  64CERIG0 


TURKEY   :2     -^ 

AND 

GREECE         ^     rc^ 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


i^ 


150  200 


J 


peninsula  which  extends  from  the  foot  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula  between  the  ^Egean  and  Ionian  seas.  Greece 
is  only  about  as  big  as  our  state  of  West  Virginia,  and  it  is 
so  wild  and  rugged  that  most  of  the  land  cannot  be  culti- 
vated, but  it  has  nevertheless  been  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant countries  of  the  world.  It  was  the  birthplace  of  our 
civilization.  When  the  rest  of  Europe  was  inhabited  by 
savages  and  wild  animals,  Greece  had  cities  and  towns  and 
cultivated  farms.  It  had  many  little  republics,  each  with 
its  own  government  and  its  own  laws. 


IN  MODEiRN  GREECE.  383 

The  Greeks  were  then  noted  for  their  strength  and 
beauty,  and  they  often  held  public  games  where  the  men 
and  boys  from  everywhere  came  to  try  who  was  the  strong- 
est and  most  skillful.  They  were  artistic,  and  they  built 
some  of  the  grandest  temples  and  carved  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  statues  the  world  has  ever  known.  They 
were  learned ;  they  had  famous  orators,  poets,  and  schol- 
ars ;  and  their  language  was  so  beautiful,  and  their  methods 
of  thinking  so  clear,  that  the  literature  of  ancient  Greece 
has  always  been  a  source  of  inspiration  to  scholars  every- 
where ;  it  is  still  studied  in  the  colleges  all  over  the  world. 

The  ancient  Greeks  became  a  great  commercial  nation. 
The  country  has  many  excellent  harbors,  so  that  its  people 
naturally  have  always  taken  to  the  sea.  Their  huge  boats, 
propelled  by  triple  banks  of  oars,  went  to  all  parts  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  exchanging  the  choicest  products  of 
Greece  for  those  of  other  lands. 

They  became  so  rich  after  a  time  that  other  nations 
made  war  upon  them.  They  were  conquered  by  the  Per- 
sians, and  later  by  the  Romans,  who  readily  assimilated 
the  culture  and  refinement  of  their  subjects,  and  in  time 
carried  the  Greek  civilization  with  them  along  the  Rhine, 
aiid  to  all  parts  of  northern  Europe.  Hundreds  of  years 
later  this  same  civilization,  developed  and  modified  some- 
what by  the  different  peoples  that  transmitted  it,  came 
with  our  forefathers  to  North  America ;  so  that  the  little 
country  of  Greece  was  really  the  originator  of  much  of 
our  own  manners  and  customs  and  thought.  ^ 

All  this,  however,  came  from  the  ancient  Greeks,  who 
lived  long  before  Christ  was  born.  Since  that  time  the  coun- 
try has  been  conquered  again  and  again;  and  its  people 
have  been  so  oppressed  and  ill  treated  by  their  savage 
victors  that  it  has  at  times  become  almost  barbarous.    The 


384  GREECE. 

Goths  overran  it  during  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  when  the 
Turks  captured  Constantinople  they  took  possession  of  it, 
and  ruled  it  in  their  miserable  way  until  shortly  after  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century,  when  the  Greeks  rebelled, 
and  through  the  assistance  of  some  of  the  great  nations 
of  Europe  again  became  an  independent  people.  They 
have  now  their  own  Parliament,  elected  by  themselves, 
and  a  King  who  is  a  descendant  of  the  royal  family  of 
Denmark ;  and  they  are  rapidly  improving  in  civilization 
and  wealth,  as  we  shall  observe  during  our  travels  among 
them. 

We  have  left  Constantinople  by  steamer,  and  have  come 
to  Athens,  the  capital  of  Greece.  What  a  beautiful  city 
it  is,  and  how  modern !  It  has  many  magnificent  build- 
ings of  the  purest  white  marble,  and  thousands  of  two, 
three,  and  four  story  houses  of  brick  covered  with  stucco. 
The  walls  of  the  houses  are  either  white,  or  of  the  most 
delicate  pinks,  blues,  and  yellows,  so  that  we  seem  to  be  in 
a  city  of  many  colored  marbles,  roofed  with  red  tiles.  The 
streets  are  paved  with  cobbles,  and  the  sidewalks  with  flag- 
stones. There  are  palaces  with  gardens  about  them,  and 
parks  filled  with  trees  and  beautiful  flowers.  The  business 
sections  look  like  those  of  an  American  town,  and  the 
stores  have  plate  glass  windows,  displaying  all  sorts  of 
beautiful  goods. 

Do  you  hear  that  locomotive  ?  That  shrill  whistle  an- 
nounces the  arrival  of  the  steam  cars  from  The  Piraeus 
(pi-re'us),  the  seaport  of  Athens,  which  is  over  the  plain 
about  five  miles  away ;  and  that  bell  that  you  hear  is  rung 
by  the  conductor  on  that  street  car  over  there,  by  which 
we  can  ride  to  any  part  of  the  city. 

We  thought  we  were  coming  to  one  of  the  oldest  places 
of  the  world;   but  we  seem  to  be  in  one  of  the  newest, 


IN   MODERN  GREECE. 


385 


until  we  take  a  stroll  outside  the  town,  through  the  ruins 
which  are  lying  about  on  every  side.  We  realize  still  more 
that  we  are  on  the  site  of  old  Athens  when  we  climb  the 
Acropolis.  This  is  a  gigantic  block  or  hill  of  rose-colored 
stone  which  rises  almost  straight  up  above  Athens  on  the 
edge  of  the  city.  Upon  its  top  there  is  a  plateau  of  about 
ten  acres  covered  with  broken    columns,  marble  statues. 


The  Acropolis. 


and  the  remains  of  the  most  wonderful  buildings  of  ancient 
Greece.  Here  are  the  ruins  of  the  Parthenon ;  the  great 
columns  which  once  upheld  the  roof  of  that  beautiful  tem- 
ple still  rest  on  their  pedestals ;  here  was  the  statue  of 
Athena,  the  goddess  of  war,  which  was  thirty-eight  feet 
high  and  made  of  ivory  and  gold.  Near  the  Parthenon 
are  the  ruins  of  another  temple,  with  a  portico  upheld  by 
tall  Grecian  maidens  in  marble ;  and  there  are  so  many 


386 


GREECE. 


other  wonderful  ruins  to  be  seen  outside  Athens,  and  in 
other  parts  of  Greece,  that  it  would  take  many  months  to 
explore  them. 

We  are  more  interested  in  the  Greeks  of  to-day.     Notice, 
for   instance,  that  man  driving  some   goats,  who  is   now 


"  —  a  portico  upheld  by  tall  Grecian  maidens  in  mau^le." 

coming  toward  us.  He  is  dressed  in  short  skirts  and  tight 
trousers,  with  an  embroidered  jacket  which  comes  to  his 
waist.  He  has  red  shoes  with  black  tassels  as  big  as  a 
chestnut  bur  on  the  toes,  and  a  red  nightcap  on  his  head. 
He  is  one  of  the  milkmen  of  Athens,  and  lives  in  the  coun- 


IN  MODERN  GREECE.  387 

try  near  by.  See,  he  has  stopped  at  that  house  over  there 
and  is  kneeling  beside  one  of  his  goats.  He  is  milking  it 
for  the  servant  girl  who  stands  by  his  side  and  looks  on. 
The  most  of  the  Athenians  drink  goat's 
milk,  and  to  be  sure  they  get  it  fresh 
and  unwatered,  they  insist  that  the  goats 
be  driven  from  house  to  house  and 
milked  at  their  doors. 

Do  you  want  a  ripe  orange,  or  some 
figs  fresh  from  the  trees }     If  so,  you 
can  buy  them  cheap  of  that  Greek  boy 
coming  down  the  street;  he  is  driving 
two  little  donkeys  loaded  with  baskets  of 
fruit.     Greece  has  many  fine  fruits.     It     "He  is  dressed  in 
has  the  most  delicious  of  oranges,  and         ^^°^*  skirts." 
they  are  so  cheap  that  we  can  buy  all  we  can  eat  for  a 
very  few  cents. 

But  perhaps  you  desire  something  sweeter !  Well,  in 
that  case  we  shall  call  over  that  old  woman,  who  is  walk- 
ing along  on  the  opposite  sidewalk  behind  the  fruit  ped- 
dler. She  has  a  thick  comb  of  honey  fastened  to  a  branch 
in  her  hand.  It  is  the  honey  of  Hymettus,  and  it  was 
gathered  by  the  bees  from  the  yellow  flowers  which  grow 
on  the  mount  of  that  name.  It  has  a  delicious  flavor  ;  the 
honey  of  Hymettus  has  been  noted  for  ages.  Greece  is  a 
land  of  sweet-smelling,  honey-filled  flowers,  and  the  bees 
work  as  hard  here  as  anywhere  else  in  the  world. 

But  look  at  the  boy  who  is  coming  out  of  the  street  at 
the  left !  He  is  carrying  a  big  dish  of  smoking  roast  meat. 
Behind  him  comes  a  girl  with  a  plate  of  baked  fish  sprinkled 
with  onions,  and  farther  back  are  several  children  carrying 
loaves  of  hot  bread  and  other  things  fresh  from  the  fire. 
Where  can  they  be  going }     They  must  be  on  their  way  to 


388  GREECE. 

supply  some  great  public  dinner.  No ;  each  child  is  carry- 
ing only  the  food  for  its  own  family.  The  dishes  were 
dressed  at  home  and  taken  to  the  baker  to  be  cooked  in 
his  oven  at  so  much  a  dish.  The  Greeks  have  small 
kitchens,  and  their  ordinary  cooking  stove  is  not  fitted 
for  roasting  and  baking.  It  is  a  brick  or  stone  ledge 
built  about  three  feet  high  against  the  wall,  with  several 
small  holes  in  the  top.  Each  hole  has  a  grating  and  an 
opening  below  it  in  the  side,  which  furnishes  the  draft. 
Upon  the  grating  a  little  charcoal  is  put,  and  the  fire  is 
made  hotter  by  fanning.  Only  boiling  and  stewing  can 
easily  be  cfone  on  such  stoves ;  so  when  a  family  has  a 
large  roast  it  sends  it  out  to  the  baker. 

If  we  follow  those  boys  and  enter  their  houses,  we  shall 
discover  that  the  poorer  Greeks  live  very  simply.  Many 
families  have  but  two  rooms,  one  often  serving  as  dining 
room,  bedroom,  and  kitchen;  some  of  the  houses  are 
built  around  courts  without  yards  or  gardens.  The  better 
classes  have  homes  much  like  those  we  saw  in  Berlin, 
Vienna,  and  Paris.  They  live  in  apartments  or  flats,  a 
number  of  families  in  the  same  house,  only  the  rich 
having  separate  houses. 

We  see  all  sorts  of  peddlers  as  we  go  on  with  our  walk. 
There  are  men  with  lemonade  and  candies,  and  men  ped- 
dling onions,  and  garlic,  which  they  have  woven  together 
in  ropes  and  sell  at  so  much  a  string.  There  are  men 
driving  turkeys  along  from  house  to  house,  so  that  the  cus- 
tomers may  pick  out  the  turkeys  they  want  from  the  flock. 
There  are  men  in  skirts  and  red  caps  riding  on  horses  and 
donkeys,  and  men,  women,  and  children,  dressed  as  we 
are,  in  carriages,  driven  by  coachmen  in  skirts  and  red 
caps.  There  are  private  soldiers  wearing  the  jackets  and 
petticoats,  which  form  a  part  of  the  national  uniform,  and 


IN  MODERN  GREECE. 


389 


smart-looking  officers  in  suits  of  white  linen.  There  are 
many  priests  dressed  in  black  gowns  and  high  caps,  which 
remind  us  of  the  churches  of  Russia,  for  the  Greeks  and 
the  Russians  have  much  the  same  faith,  and  nearly  all 
here  belong  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  business  done  on  the  streets. 
We  see  women  wearing  the  long,  loose  gowns  of  the 
country,  knitting  outside  their  houses,  and  shoemakers 
pegging  away  on  the  steps.  There 
are  cafes  everywhere  with  tables  out- 
side them,  surrounded  by  men  who 
are  playing  dominoes  while  they  chat 
and  drink  coffee.  The  coffee  is  black, 
and  costs  two  or  three  cents  a  cup. 
Some  of  the  men  are  very  excited. 
They  are  talking  politics ;  for  these 
people  are  great  politicians,  and  even 
the  waiters  at  the  hotels  and  the 
drivers  on  the  street  cars  think  they 
know  just  how  the  governments  of 
the  whole  world  should  be  run. 

The  Greeks  have  their  own  political 
parties,  and  elect  the  Parliament  which 
makes  all  their  laws.  They  are  patri- 
otic, and  very  proud  of  their  progress 
since  they  became  free  of  the  Turks. 
They  have  built  hundreds  of  miles  of  railroads.  They  now 
have  public  schools  all  over  Greece,  which  all  children  are 
required  to  attend.  The  Greeks  are  fast  becoming  well 
educated.  The  boys  and  girls  are  anxious  to  learn,  and 
we  shall  meet  few  who  can  not  read  and  write.  The 
school  books  are  in  the  same  characters  that  the  ancient 
Greeks  used,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  a  boy  recite 

CARP.   EUROPE — 24 


"We  see  women  wear- 
ing the  long,  loose 
gowns  of  the  coun- 
try." 


390  GREECE. 

the  tales  of  Homer  in  the  original,  or  repeat  the  orations 
of  Demosthenes,  a  famous  Greek  orator  who  lived  over 
twenty-two  centuries  ago. 

Athens  has  again  become  a  seat  of  learning.  It  has  a 
university  with  thousands  of  students,  a  girl's  college  which 
is  one  of  the  largest  and  best  of  the  Far  East,  and  many 
scientific  institutions.  Fifty  different  newspapers  and 
periodicals  are  published,  most  of  them  in  the  Greek  text. 
Many  of  the  people  speak  several  languages,  and  we  fre- 
quently meet  girls  and  boys  of  eight  and  ten  years  who 
address  us  in  English.  We  learn  that  scholars  come  here 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  study  the  ruins  of  old  Greece 
and  the  wonderful  collections  in  the  museums;  and  we  spend 
some  time  at  the  American  College,  where  students  from 
our  own  country  come  to  study  Greek  literature  and  art. 

We  are  surprised  at  the  wealth  of  Athens  and  at  the 
extent  of  Grecian  commerce  and  trade.  The  ports  are 
crowded  with  shipping.  The  country  has  several  hundred 
merchant  steamers,  and  more  than  three  thousand  sailing 
vessels  in  addition  to  numerous  coasters.  Owing  to  the 
excellent  harbors  and  the  nearness  of  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try to  the  coast,  many  of  the  Greeks  become  sailors,  and 
Greek  ships  now  do  a  large  part  of  the  business  of  the 
Black  Sea  and  the. Mediterranean  Sea. 

The  Greeks  almost  monopolize  the  trade  of  this  part  of 
the  world.  They  have  established  Greek  banking  houses 
and  stores  at  all  ports  of  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt,  and  at 
the  chief  cities  along  the  Black  Sea  and  the  ^gean  Sea. 
There  are  many  more  Greeks  living  outside  Greece  than  at 
home.  There  are  about  eight  millions  of  them  in  the  world, 
and  only  a  little  more  than  two  millions  live  in  Greece,  the 
others  having  gone  abroad  as  sailors  or  to  engage  in  com- 
merce.    They  are  so  successful  as  traders  that  it  is  a  com- 


IN   MODERN  GREECE.  39 1 

mon  saying  in  the  countries  about  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  that  one  Greek  is  equal  to  two  Jews 
at  a  bargain,  and  every  one  knows  that  the  Jews  are  shrewd 
traders. 

But  suppose  we  leave  Athens  and  take  a  trip  across  the 
peninsula  to  Corinth,  where  we  can  get  a  vessel  which  will 
land  us  in  Italy.  We  go  by  rail,  stopping  now  and  then 
at  a  station  for  a  drive  off  into  the  country.  How  beauti- 
ful everything  looks !  The  sky  is  bright  blue,  there  is  a 
silvery  tinge  to  the  mountains,  and  the  shadows  of  the 
fleecy  clouds  make  patches  of  dark  blue  velvet  on  the 
silver  gray  hills.  We  pass  through  fields  of  wheat,  barley, 
and  rye,  in  which  great  blood-red  poppies  are  growing. 
We  go  by  orange  groves,  where  the  yellow  balls  peep  at 
us  out  of  the  green  foliage,  and  see  thousands  of  gnarly 
olive  trees  with  the  plumlike  fruit  ripening  upon  them. 

There  are  fine-looking  men  and  women  at  work  in  the 
fields  gathering  the  crops.  They  are  cutting  the  grain  with 
sickles  and  scythes,  and  tying  it  into  sheaves  with  their 
hands.  Nearly  all  the  farming  is  of  the  rudest  descrip- 
tion. The  fields  are  hoed  or  spaded  instead  of  being 
plowed,  and  all  the  seeds  are  sown  by  hand.  There  are 
many  small  farms,  and  the  farmer  in  most  cases  owns  the 
land  that  he  tills. 

As  we  near  Corinth  we  enter  a  region  of  vineyards,  and 
should  we  go  on  south  across  the  Corinth  peninsula,  we 
should  see  hill  after  hill  covered  with  vines.  It  is  these 
vineyards  that  yield  the  Zante  currants,  the  seedless 
grapes  or  raisins  which  are  shipped  to  all  parts  of  the 
world.  They  form  the  chief  export  of  Greece  and  bring 
in  many  milHons  of  dollars  a  year.  Shiploads  of  them  go 
to  the  United  States ;  and  I  doubt  not  every  one  of  us  has 
eaten  them  again  and  again  in  puddings  and  cakes.     They 


392  ITALY. 

are  not  much  bigger  than  peas,  but  they  have  such  a  deli- 
cious flavor  that  there  are  no  other  grapes  equal  to  them, 
and  they  grow  best  right  here  near  Corinth.  It  is  from 
Corinth  that  their  name,  currant,  comes ;  and  our  currants, 
although  they  are  a  different  fruit,  were  probably  named 
after  the  Zante  currant  on  account  of  the  similarity  in  size 
and  appearance. 

We  see  the  people  picking  the  grapes.  .Hundreds  of 
men,  women,  and  children  are  gathering  them  and  laying 
them  out  on  trays  to  dry  in  the  sun.  After* drying  they 
are  packed  up  in  boxes  and  crates,  and  then  sent  to  Patras 
and  other  ports. 

XL.     VENICE. 

WE  take  ship  at  Corinth  and  steam  out  through  the 
Gulf  of  Patras  into  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The 
sky  is  bright,  the  water  is  a  deep  blue,  and  in  the  bright 
sunlight  the  mountains  seem  to  be  dusted  with  silver.  We 
sail  in  and  out  among  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  then  turn 
to  the  north,  and  are  soon  going  through  the  Strait  of 
Otranto  into  the  Adriatic.  We  sail  up  this  long  narrow 
sea  for  two  days,  coasting  by  Albania  and  the  inde- 
pendent little  country  of  Montenegro  (see  map,  p.  406), 
and  on  the  third  morning  find  ourselves  at  anchor  in  front 
of  a  great  city  which  seems  to  rise  up  out  of  the  waves. 
There  are  thousands  of  buildings  apparently  resting  in 
water,  which  flows  through  the  streets,  and  washes  the 
walls  of  the  houses.  There  is  water  to  the  right,  and 
water  to  the  left,  between  the  city  and  the  shore ;  and  by 
climbing  up  the  mast  of  our  steamer  we  can  look  over  and 
see  water  behind  the  city. 


VENICE. 


393 


And  still  the  shore  is  everywhere  but  a  few  miles  away. 
It  is  low  and  marshy  on  the  water's  edge,  but  farther  back 
the  land  rises,  and  away  off  in  the  distance  is  a  wall  of  high 
mountains,  their  peaks  covered  with  snow.  Those  moun- 
tains are  the  Italian  Alps,  the  other  side  of  which  we 
explored  while  in  Switzerland ;  and  the  country  off  which 
we  are  lying,  extending  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  westward 
and  southward,  is  the  great  kingdom  of  Italy,  which  we  are 
now  to  explore. 

The  city  in  front  of  us  is  Venice,  the  Queen  of  the  Adri- 
atic, a  mighty  port  which  has  grown  up  on  about  one  hun- 
dred little  islands  away  out  here  in  the  sea.  The  islands  have 
bridges  connecting  them.  They  are  covered  with  houses 
and  are  so  cut  up  by  canals  that  the  water  itself  seems  to 
form  the  foundations  of  the  city ;  the  canals  are  the  streets. 


Grand  Canal  and  the  Rialto. 


394  ITALY. 

Our  steamer  sails  up  into  one  of  the  widest  of  these 
water  highways.  It  is  the  Grand  Canal,  an  avenue  of 
water  wider  than  one  of  the  boulevards  of  Paris,  filled 
with  barges,  launches,  and  all  sorts  of  queer  Httle  boats 
moving  to  and  fro.  In  Venice  almost  all  the  traffic  is 
carried  on  by  boats.  There  is  not  a  dray,  a  cart,  nor 
a  carriage  in  the  whole  city.  There  is  not  a  cow  nor 
horse,  there  are  not  even  the  little  donkeys  of  which  we 
saw  so  many  in  Greece.  The  hucksters  and  vegetable 
peddlers  go  about  in  boats  from  door  to  door,  stopping 
under  the  kitchen  windows  to  cry  out  their  wares.  The 
cargo  from  the  steamers  is  taken  in  barges  to  the  factories 
and  warehouses.  People  go  calling  in  boats,  and  many  of 
the  children  use  boats  in  going  to  and  from  school. 

The  houses  rise  abruptly  from  the  canals,  and  you  can 
step  from  your  house  right  into  your  boat.  There  are  no 
front  yards,  back  yards,  or  side  yards,  and  a  Venetian  boy 
never  swings  on  his  father's  front  gate.  The  streets  are 
usually  back  of  the  houses.  They  are  narrow  stone  pave- 
ments bordering  the  canals,  and  are  for  foot  passengers 
only.  They  wind  in  and  out,  crossing  the  canals  by  bridges 
so  arched  that  boats  can  pass  under  them,  and  in  our 
walks  we  shall  be  always  going  up  and  down  hill. 

But  see  those  odd-looking  boats  coming  out  to  the 
steamer.  They  are  long  and  narrow,  and  turned  up  at 
the  ends,  with  a  little  cabin  in  the  center.  They  are 
painted  black,  and  the  only  sign  of  color  about  them  is  in 
the  bright  cushions  which  can  be  seen  through  the  cabin 
windows.  Those  are  gondolas,  the  water  cabs  of  Venice, 
in  which  we  shall  make  our  trips  through  the  city.  At 
the  stern  of  each  boat  stands  the  gondolier,  who  is  sculling 
it  along  with  an  oar  which  he  twists  from  side  to  side, 
swaying  to  and  fro  as  he  does  so. 


VENICE. 


395 


The  Water  Cabs  of  Venice. 


We  motion  to  one  of  them  to  come  to  the  ship  and  give 
us  a  ride  through  the  city.  The  gondolier  moves  his  boat 
to  the  gangway;  he  helps  us  aboard,  and  we  step  inside 
the  cabin.  He  then  takes  his  place  at  the  stern,  and  we 
soon  hear  the  splash,  ^..>. 

splash,  splash  of  his 
oar  as  he  sculls  us 
on  through  one  street 
after  another.  We 
move  up  the  Grand 
Canal,  among  craft 
large  and  small,  past 
palaces  which  have 
been  turned  into  hotels  and  warehouses,  by  great  factories 
with  humming  machinery,  and  on  by  the  homes  of  the 
people,  where  families  are  sitting  out  on  their  balconies, 
chatting,  and  enjoying  the  air. 

Now  we  are  floating  under  the  parlor  windows  of  a 
magnificent  house,  and  the  music  of  a  piano  comes  down 
to  us.  We  hear  the  soft  strumming  of  a  guitar  in  the 
hands  of  one  of  a  pleasure  party  rowing  toward  us,  while 
the  cries  of  hucksters  peddling  vegetables,  fish,  and  fruits 
from  other  boats  sound  loudly  over  the  water. 

We  tell  the  gondolier  to  turn  into  the  smaller  canals, 
and  are  soon  floating  through  alleys  so  narrow  that  we  can 
touch  the  stone  walls  on  either  side.  The  high  houses 
shut  out  the  sun,  and  the  water  seems  black  in  the  shadows, 
while  our  walled  road  is  roofed  with  a  strip  of  blue  sky. 

What  a  lot  of  strange  things  are  going  on  in  the  canal. 
We  see  men  and  boys  in  swimming  suits  diving  down  into 
the  water  and  floating  about.  Here  are  the  playgrounds 
of  the  children.  Every  boy  in  Venice  must  learn  to  swim, 
and  the  little  ones  take  to  the  water  like  ducks.     There  is 


396  ITALY. 

a  boy  now  diving  out  of  the  side  window  of  his  house,  and 
there  is  another  crawling  up  out  of  the  water  to  the  front 
door.  There  are  women  washing  clothes  on  the  steps  of 
their  houses,  and  drying  them  on  the  roofs  or  on  ropes 
stretched  from  one  house  to  another  across  the  canals. 
Farther  on  are  some  children  in  boats,  and  beyond  them 
are  passenger  boats  going  from  one  part  of  the  city  to 
another. 

Leaving  the  smaller  canals,  we  come  again  into  the  Grand 
Canal,  our  gondola  rocking  up  and  down  in  the  waves 
of  the  larger  boats  passing  near  it ;  we  stop  for  a  moment 
to  look  at  a  great  marble  bridge  which  crosses  the  canal 
from  one  island  to  another.  This  bridge  is  the  Rialto, 
one  of  the  most  famous  bridges  of  the  world.  It  is  more 
than  three  hundred  years  old,  and  was  formerly  noted 
as  one  of  the  business  centers  of  Venice.  It  swarms 
with  foot  passengers  from  daylight  to  dark.  It  is  so  wide 
that  shops  have  been  built  upon  it,  and  passing  over  it  is 
like  going  through  the  aisle  of  a  department  store  where 
men,  women,  and  children  are  shopping.  We  buy  some 
oranges  of  the  fruit  peddlers  at  the  end  of  the  bridge,  and 
then  step  down,  into  our  gondola  and  glide  onward  past 
some  of  the  finest  buildings  of  the  city  to  the  hotel. 

Our  hotel  is  in  one  of  the  old  palaces.  We  walk  up 
marble  steps,  and  go  into  wide  halls  floored  with  mosaic. 
Our  bedroom  is  enormous;  it  has  a  stone  floor,  and  its 
walls  and  ceiling  are  covered  with  paintings,  so  that  angek 
and  cupids  are  looking  down  upon  us  from  above  as  we 
awake  in  the  morning.  Almost  all  the  houses  of  Venice 
are  built  of  stone  brought  in  ships  from  the  mainland.  In 
many  instances  cedar  piles  were  driven  down  into  the  sand 
to  make  the  foundations,  as  in  Amsterdam  and  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  upon  them  these  great  stone  structures  were 


VENICE.  397 

built.  On  account  of  the  dampness,  stone  and  cement  are 
still  used  for  the  floors,  layer  after  layer  being  put  on 
until  a  thick  floor  is  formed.  The  last  layer  is  composed 
of  fine  bits  of  colored  stone  carefully  fitted  together,  and 
so  rubbed  down  that  it  forms  a  mosaic  as  smooth  as  pol- 
ished marble  or  glass. 

Venice  is  celebrated  for  this  sort  of  stonework.  The 
Venetians  make  not  only  floors  and  walls  of  mosaic,  but 
also  the  most  beautiful  jewelry  and  pictures,  one  picture 
often  containing  thousands  of  bits  of  colored  stone  and 
glass,  so  fitted  together  that  you  cannot  see  the  joints  and 
might  suppose  that  the  colors  were  put  on  with  a  brush. 

We  spend  several  days  in  studying  the  industries  of 
Venice.  We  visit  the  glass  works,  the  mosaic  works,  and 
the  factories  where  they  are  weaving  beautiful  silks  and 
cloths  of  all  kinds. 

We  frequently  go  to  the  square  of  St.  Mark's  to  look  at 
the  famous  cathedral  and  the  four  bronze  horses  which 
stand  high  up  on  its  front;  and  also  the  famous  bronze 
lion  on  a  tall  column  near  by.  When  I  said  there  were 
no  horses  in  Venice  I  meant  only  flesh  and  blood  horses. 
The  horses  of  St.  Mark's  are  of  metal  and  hence  do  not 
count.  Yet  they  have,  probably,  traveled  more  than  any 
live  horses  you  know.  They  are  supposed  to  have  once 
adorned  one  of  the  triumphal  arches  of  Nero,  the  emperor 
of  Rome.  The  Romans  considered  them  so  beautiful 
that  they  took  them  to  Constantinople  when  that  city  be- 
came the  capital  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Later  Venice 
conquered  Constantinople,  and  brought  the  horses  back 
here.  When  Napoleon  overran  Italy  he  carried  them  to 
Paris.  There  they  remained  until  he  lost  his  empire,  when 
they  were  brought  back  to  Venice. 

The  square  of  St.  Mark's  is  the  largest  square  in  the 


398 


ITALY. 


city,  and  about  the  only  place  where  there  is  much  room 
for  strolling  about.  It  is  walled  on  three  sides  by  build- 
ings which  seem  one  vast  marble  palace,  blackened  by  age 
and  the  weather,  with  this  square  in  the  center.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  square  is  Saint  Mark's  cathedral. 


Saint  Mark's, 

The  lower  stories- of  some  of  the  buildings  are  occupied 
by  shops  and  cafes,  which  open  out  upon  arcades,  where 
in  the  evening  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children 
walk  to  and  fro.  There  are  tables  and  chairs  in  the  square, 
and  people  sitting  at  them  eating  ice  cream  and  drinking 
coffee,  chocolate,  or  wine,  while  they  listen  to  the  music  of 
the  military  bands  which  play  there  four  nights  a  week. 

More  interesting  than  this  is  an  event  which  occurs  every 
afternoon   at  just   two  o'clock,  when  grain   is   scattered 


VENICE. 


399 


over  the  stones,  and  the  pigeons  come  by  the  thousands 
from  all  parts  of  the  city  to  eat  it.  We  are  late  in 
arriving,  and  find  the  square  filled  with  these  beautiful 
birds.  We  buy  a  little  bag  of  corn  from  an  old  woman 
peddler,  and  throw  out  several  handfuls,  stooping  down 
as  we  do  so.  The  pigeons  swarm  over  us.  They  light 
upon  our  heads,  shoulders,  and  backs,  and  even  eat  from 
our  hands.  We  must  be  careful  how  we  treat  them,  for 
if  we  should  kill  one  we  might  have  to  go  to  jail  for  six 
months.  This  feeding  the  pigeons  is  one  of  the  old  cus- 
toms of  Venice.  The  people  love  them,  for  it  is  said  that 
once,  when  the  city  was  in  danger,  it  was  saved  by  a  letter 
brought  by  a  carrier  pigeon ;  at  another  time,  we  are  told, 
Venice  gained  a  great  victory  over  its  enemies  by  infor- 
mation obtained  in  a 
similar  way. 

We  spend  some  time 
in  wandering  about 
Saint  Mark's  cathedral, 
which  is  one  of  the  finest 
of  Europe ;  and  then  go 
through  the  Palace  of 
the  Doges,  in  which  the 
Venetian  Council  sat, 
centuries  ago,  when  the 
city  was  a  republic. 
From  the  second  story 
of  the  palace,  we  cross 
the  canal  to  the  prison 
near  by  upon  the  Bridge 
of  Sighs.     It  is  a  cov-  ^"^2^®  o^  ^'S^^- 

ered  stone  passageway  through  which  the  criminals  came 
to  be  tried  and  punished.     We  stop  here  a  moment  while 


400  ITALY. 

our  guide  reads  the  verses  from  Byron's  poem  which  refer 
to  the  city :  — 

"  I  stood  in  Venice,  on  the  Bridge  of  Sighs, 
A  palace  and  a  prison  on  each  hand ; 
I  saw  from  out  the  waves  her  structures  rise 
As  from  the  stroke  of  some  enchanter's  wand. 
A  thousand  years  their  cloudy  wings  expand 
Around  me,  and  a  dying  glory  smiles 
O'er  the  far  times  when  many  a  subject-land 
Looked  to  the  winged  islands'  marble  piles, 
Where  Venice  sat  in  state,  throned  on  her  hundred  isles." 

Even  the  foundation  of  Venice  is  interesting.  It  was 
started  by  the  Veneti,  who  lived  near  the  coast  on  the  main- 
land, when  the  barbarians  under  Attila  came  over  the  Alps 
into  Italy  and  took  Rome.  The  Veneti  fled  for  refuge  to 
these  sandy  islands,  and  here  built  their  little  homes.  At 
first  they  caught  fish  and  sold  them.  They  evaporated  the 
salt  from  the  water,  and  after  a  time  built  up  a  great  busi- 
ness in  fish  and  salt,  which  were  then  in  even  greater 
demand  than  at  present. 

As  they  grew  richer  they  began  to  trade  in  other  things. 
They  sent  out  merchant  vessels,  and  soon  became  the  chief 
commercial  people  of  the  Mediterranean.  Their  islands 
were  situated  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic  Sea ;  hither 
goods  could  be  most  easily  brought  by  water  to  be  sent 
across  the  low  passes  of  the  Alps ;  this  gave  the  Venetians 
a  great  trade  with  northern  Europe.  Their  ships  soon 
went  to  all  parts  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Black 
Sea,  and  in  time  out  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  to 
England,  France,  Holland,  and  Belgium. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  fine  goods  from  Asia  were 
brought  overland  to  the  Mediterranean  ports,  and  thence 
shipped  to  Venice ;  from  here  they  were  carried  across  the 
Alps  to  the  Rhine,  and  from  there  to  all  parts  of  northern 


VENICE.  401 

Europe.  Other  goods  were  sent  back  in  exchange,  and 
Venice  increased  in  wealth.  Factories  of  various  kinds 
were  established,  and  as  the  Venetians  were  skillful,  their 
city  soon  became  a  noted  manufacturing  center.  It  grew 
more  and  more  powerful,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  it 
was  an  independent  republic.  It  had  its  own  army  and 
navy,  and  made  war  on  other  cities  and  took  some  of 
them.  Its  merchants  were  among  the  richest  of  that  time, 
and  they  owned  three  thousand  trading  vessels,  which  car- 
ried their  goods  to  all  parts  of  the  known  world. 

This  was  at  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  when  all  Europe 
was  excited  because  Jerusalem  and  the  Tomb  of  our  Savior 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedans,  and  armies  of 
soldiers  were  formed  to  go  to  the  Holy  Land  to  redeem 
the  city.  One  of  the  best  ways  thither  was  by  way  of 
Venice,  so  that  for  many  years  a  stream  of  soldiers  poured 
through  the  city,  adding  thereby  to  its  wealth. 

It.  continued  to  grow  until  the  route  to  India  around  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  discovered.  After  that  it  was 
found  that  goods  could  be  brought  more  cheaply  from 
Asia  by  sea,  and  the  trade  of  Venice  began  to  decline. 
The  discovery  of  the  new  world  by  Columbus  was  another 
blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the  city,  for  this  brought  the 
Atlantic  ports  into  prominence  ;  and  now  there  are  several 
ports  on  the  Mediterranean  which  have  more  commerce 
than  Venice,  and  scores  of  cities  in  the  world  which  are 
richer  and  more  powerful.  Venice  has  now  less  than  two 
hundred  thousand  people,  although  it  has  grown  through 
the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal,  by  which  it  has  regained 
some  of  its  Asiatic  trade.  A  railroad  has  been  built  which 
connects  it  with  the  mainland,  and  goods  from  Asia  now 
come  by  way  of  the  canal  to  Venice,  and  are  sent  on  through 
the  tunnels  in  the  Alps  to  central  and  northern  Europe. 


402  ITALY. 


XLI.     NORTHERN   ITALY. 

WE  have  left  Venice,  and  are  riding  on  the  railroad 
through  the  rich  plains  of  Lombardy.  On  the  north 
we  can  see  the  mighty  snow-capped  wall  of  the  Alps,  which 
shuts  Italy  off  from  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  and  not 
far  to  the  southward  is  the  long  range  of  the  Apennines, 
which  extends  down  through  the  peninsula  clear  to  its  foot. 
We  are  traveling  over  some  of  the  richest  soil  of  all  Europe, 
so  rich  that  it  produces  two  crops  of  grain  every  year,  and, 
in  the  irrigated  portions,  as  much  as  ten  crops  of  grass. 
The  plain  of  Lombardy  is  the  basin  of  several  large  rivers, 
such  as  the  Po  and  the  Adige  (a-d*e'je).  It  is  twice  as 
large  as  Massachusetts  and  about  one  half  of  it  is  composed 
of  irrigated  lands. 

We  ride  for  hours  through  rice  fields,  through  grain 
fields  and  plantations  of  cotton,  passing  many  orchards 
and  vineyards.  There  at  the  right  of  the  track  they  are 
cutting  the  grass ;  the  men  are  mowing  it  down  with 
scythes,  and  women  and  boys  are  turning  it  over  with  long 
poles,  while  others  are  raking  the  dry  hay  together.  There 
are  no  mowing  machines ;  many  of  the  fields  are  spaded 
and  hoed,  and  the  plovv^ing  is  done  with  old-fashioned 
wooden  plows  tipped  with  iron. 

The  chief  business  of  Italy  is  farming.  The  country  has 
a  great  deal  of  excellent  land.  There  are  rich  valleys  on 
both  sides  of  the  Apennines,  and  many  plains  upon  which 
millions  of  cattle,  sheep,  goats,  and  donkeys  are  pastured. 
There  are  vineyards  which  produce  grapes  so  abundantly 
that  Italy  ranks  next  to  France  as  the  chief  wine-producing 
country  of  the  world,  and  there  are  orchards  of  olives, 
oranges,  and  lemons  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  peninsula. 


NORTHERN  ITALY.  403 

Much  of  the  land  is  owned  in  large  tracts,  and  let  on 
shares.  In  some  districts  the  people  who  live  in  the  moun- 
tains come  down  in  families  and  bands  to  work  in  the  har- 
vest fields.  Each  band  has  its  own  leader,  who  makes  all 
the  arrangements  as  to  wages,  and  who  tells  the  men, 
women,  and  children  just  what  they  shall  do.  The  wages 
are  very  low,  good-sized  boys  and  girls  getting  but  a  few 
cents  a  day. 

But  suppose  we  leave  our  train  at  this  station,  and  visit 
one  of  the  villages  to  find  out  how  the  farmers  live.  The 
houses  are  of  rough  stone  and  mortar,  and  in  some  cases 
covered  with  stucco.  The  smaller  houses  have  but  two 
rooms,  a  kitchen  on  the  ground  floor  and  a  bedroom  above. 
The  floor  is  of  brick,  -stone,  or  earth,  and  everything  is  of 
the  rudest  description.  The  window  panes  are  of  paper, 
and  the  furniture  of  many  a  house  consists  of  a  bench,  two 
or  three  chairs,  and  a  table.  We  look  about  in  vain  for 
beds.  The  children  sleep  on  the  floor  of  the  kitchen,  and 
the  grown  people  on  great  sacks  of  straw  laid  on  the  plank 
floor  of  the  room  above. 

That  brick  ledge  at  the  side  of  the  room  is  the  cook 
stove.  Those  little  basinlike  holes  in  the  top  are  for  char- 
coal, and  the  draft  comes  up  through  the  holes  in  the  side. 
They  are  much  like  the  stoves  of  the  Greeks.  The  baking 
is  usually  done  in  an  oven  outside  the  house,  and  such 
families  as  do  not  have  ovens, take  their  bread  to. the  pub- 
lic bakeries,  as  we  saw  them  doing  in  Greece. 

The  Italian  peasants  live  plainly.  Their  food  is  chiefly 
bread  and  a  corn  meal  mush  called  polenta,  with  now 
and  then  a  bit  of  meat  or  some  coiarse  macaroni.  The 
farmer  often  goes  out  to  work  after  eating  only  a  piece 
of  dry  bread.  At  eight  o'clock  he  stops  for  another  meal 
of  dry  bread,  and  at  eleven  comes  home  for  his  breakfast 


404 


ITALY. 


of  corn  meal  mush,  and  perhaps  some  vegetable  soup.  At 
night  he  has  a  dinner  of  corn  meal  soup  or  bean  soup, 
with  some  rice  or  macaroni.  As  a  rule  he  has  meat  only 
on  feast  days,  but  he  eats  plenty  of  onions,  garlic,  and  let- 
tuce, with  olive  oil  as  a  dressing.  In  some  parts  of  Italy 
the  people  eat  a  great  quantity  of  chestnuts,  roasting  them, 
or  grinding  them  to  a  meal  and  mixing  them  with  flour  for 
their  bread.  The  nuts  are  not  so  sweet  as  our  chestnuts, 
but  they  are  three  times  as  large ;  many  are  bigger  than 
horse-chestnuts. 

The  houses  we  have  described  are  among  the  poorest 
of  Italy,   but  there  are  thousands  like  them.     There  are 
^  also  thousands  of  coun- 

try houses  much  better, 
where  each  family  has 
several  rooms,  and  there 
are  houses  still  larger 
owned  by  well-to-do  peas- 
ants. There  are  castles 
and  palaces  belonging  to 
the  nobility,  and  large 
tenement  houses  in  the 
cities,  where  many  fami- 
lies are  crowded  together, 
each  having  but  one  or 
two  rooms.  The  most  of 
the  peasants  are  poor 
and  their  homes  are  little 
better  than  hovels. 
As  we  travel  from  one  part  of  Italy  to  another,  we 
discover  that  the  peasants  dress  differently  in  the  different 
sections.  In  Lombardy  they  wear  cotton  clothing  while 
at  work  in  the  fields.      Many  go  barefooted,  and   some 


Italian  Peasants. 


NORTHERN  ITALY.  4O5 

wear  wooden  shoes,  not  unlike  those  we  saw  in  Holland 
and  Belgium.  On  Sundays  and  feast  days  the  young 
men  wear  clothing  of  wool  mixed  with  silk.  Many  of 
them  have  jackets  and  knee  breeches  of  cotton-  velvet, 
hats  £)f  soft  felt,  and  thick  leather  shoes.  At  such  times 
the  women  wear  dresses  of  wool  —  or  in  some  rare  cases 
silk  ;  an  Italian  woman's  greatest  ambition  is  to  own  a  silk 
gown.  In  many  places  the  women  wear  square  pieces  of 
embroidered  muslin  on  their  heads  instead  of  bonnets  or 
hats,  and  some  have  bead  necklaces  of  gold,  silver,  or  gilt. 
The  Italian  peasants  are  very  good  looking,  the  most  of 
them  having  dark  hair  and  eyes  and  dark  rosy  faces. 

Many  of  the  poorer  Italians  carry  on  some  kind  of  work 
in  their  homes.  The  people  are  very  artistic,  and  the  men 
do  beautiful  carving  and  painting.  They  also  manufacture 
all  sorts  of  small  articles.  The  women  knit,  spin,  and  weave, 
and  even  the  Httle  children  do  their  share  of  such  work. 

How  would  you  like  to  raise  silkworms  ?  There  are 
more  than  a  half  million  people  engaged  in  this  business 
in  Italy,  and  of  these  many  thousands  are  little  boys  and 
girls.  Italy  produces  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
million  pounds  of  silk  cocoons  every  year,  and  it  has  a 
large  industry  in  silk  weaving  and  reeling.  We  pass  by 
groves  of  mulberry  trees  as  we  go  on  with  our  journey. 
It  is  upon  the  leaves  of  these  trees  that  the  silkworms 
feed,  and  the  soil  of  northern  Italy  is  just  right  for  grow- 
ing them.  We  see  little  children  of  six  and  eight  years 
gathering  the  leaves,  and  spreading  them  out  upon  the 
trays  where  the  worms  are.  The  worms  bite  off  bits  of 
the  leaves  and  eat  them.  In  some  places  thousands  of 
worms  are  feeding,  and  as  we  stand  and  look  on  we  can 
hear  the  chopping  of  their  jaws  as  they  cut  up  the  green 
leaves. 


406 


ITALY 


Longitude  East  from  Greenwich 


After  feeding  in  tKis  way  for  a  time,  the  worms  are 
ready  to  spin  their  cocoons.  They  draw  the  silk  out  of 
their  bodies,  and  wrap  it  around  and  around  themselves 
in  an  egg-shaped  cocoon,  each  making  a  little  house  for 
itself,  where  it  hopes  to  lie  until  it  comes  out  a  butterfly 
After  the  cocoons  are  made,  the  people  boil  them  to  kill 
the  worms  inside,  and  then  unwind  the  silk,  and  by  doub- 
ling it  again  and  again,  and  twisting  it  together,  they  make 
the  thicker  thread  from  which  silk  cloth  is  woven. 


NORTHERN  ITALY. 


407 


Italy,  as  we  know,  has  long  been  noted  for  its  silks,  for 
you  may  remember  we  have  already  heard  how  the  silk 
weavers  of  Italy  went  to  Lyons,  France,  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  to  make  silk.  At  the  present  time  the  best  silks  of 
Europe  are  made  in  France  and  Germany,  and  millions  of 
pounds  of  ItaUan  cocoons  are  shipped  there  every  year 
to  be  turned  into  silks.  We  see  more  people  reeling  silk 
as  we  go  on  toward  the  slopes  of  the  Alps,  and  to  the 
beautiful  Italian  lakes,  and  we  find  great  quantities  of 
beautiful  silk  goods  in  the  stores  of  Milan  and  Genoa. 


Milan  Cathedral. 


We  are  delighted  with  Milan,  for  it  has  such  a  business 
air  about  it  that  it  reminds  us  of  our  American  cities.  It 
is  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  rich  plain  of  Lombardy, 
where  it  can  easily  be  reached  from  northern  Europe  by 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  25 


408  ITALY. 

the  railroad  tunnels  through  the  Alps,  so  that  it  has  be- 
come a  great  commercial  center.  It  now  contains  more 
than  a  half  million  people,  and  is  one  of  the  best  busi- 
ness cities  of  Europe.  It  has  fine  buildings  of  marble,  as 
well  as  big  stores,  broad  streets,  and  beautiful  parks.  Its 
people  are  good  looking,  and  are  noted  for  their  wealth 
and  fine  dressing. 

The  Milanese  are  very  proud  of  their  city,  and  espe- 
cially of  their  cathedral,  which  is  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful in  the  whole  world.  The  Milan  cathedral  is  a  great 
Gothic  structure,  made  of  the  purest  white  marble  beauti- 
fully carved.  There  are  marble  statues  on  every  part  of 
it,  so  many  indeed  that  we  count  several  thousands,  and 
then  leave  off  in  despair.  We  climb  up  the  four  hundred 
and  ninety-four  steps  of  the  tower  for  the  magnificent 
view  which  we  there  get  of  the  city,  the  Alps,  and  the 
plain  of  Lombardy,  and  then  take  train  for  Genoa,  the 
birthplace  of  Columbus. 

We  see  the  monument  of  Columbus  as  we  leave  the 
railroad  station.  It  is  a  white  marble  statue  standing  near 
an  anchor,  with  a  marble  figure  kneeling  before  it,  and 
other  figures  representing  America,  geography,  religion, 
strength,  and  wisdom  sitting  about. 

Columbus  was  born  in  Genoa  in  1436.  He  was  the 
son  of  a  wool  comber,  but  his  father  gave  him  a  good 
education,  and  he  began  life  as  a  sailor.  He  had  already 
made  a  number  of  voyages  when  he  applied  to  Genoa  for 
money  that  he  might  attempt  to  discover  a  new  route  to 
India  by  sailing  to  the  westward,  but  he  was  refused. 
He  then  laid  his  plans  before  the  courts  of  Spain,  Portu- 
gal, and  England,  and  finally  persuaded  King  Ferdinand 
and  Queen  Isabella  of  Spain  to  give  him  the  three  small 
ships  with  which  he  found  the  new  world. 


NORTHERN   ITALY.  409 

Genoa,  in  the  time  of  Columbus,  was  a  very  great  city. 
It  was  a  rival  of  Venice,  and  its  people  owned  numerous 
islands  in  the  Mediterranean.  They  had  their  factories 
and  business  houses  in  Constantinople,  Asia  Minor,  and 
along  the  Black  Sea,  and  their  ships  went  to  all  parts  of 
the  known  world. 

Genoa  has  an  .excellent  harbor,  and  it  is  to-day  an  im- 
portant port  and  a  great  manufacturing  center.  It  is  so 
beautiful  that  its  people  call  it  "  La  Superba,"  or  the 
superb  city.  The  land  about  the  harbor  rises  in  hills 
which  are  backed  by  the  Apennines.  The  houses  cover 
the  hills,  and  in  our  walks  about  through  the  streets  we 
seem  to  be  always  climbing  up  or  going  down.  The  most 
of  the  buildings  are  large ;  many  of  them  were  erected 
as  palaces  by  the  rich  nobles  and  merchants  of  ancient 
Genoa,  and  many  are  now  divided  up  into  apartments  so 
that  a  score  of  families  may  live  in  one  old  palace.  In 
most  of  the  buildings,  the  first  and  second  floors  are  given 
up  to  offices  and  stores,  while  the  floors  higher  up  are  the 
dweUings. 

Some  of  the  streets  are  very  narrow,  winding  about 
between  walls  a  hundred  feet  high  with  breaks  at  the 
cross  streets.  The  people  who  live  in  such  streets  have 
no  gardens,  and  they  stretch  wires  or  ropes  from  building 
to  building,  and  from  window  to  window,  to  dry  their  wash- 
ing upon  them,  so  that  at  times  we  have  to  walk  carefully 
to  avoid  the  dripping  water. 

We  drive  out  to  the  Aqua  Sola,  the  great  park  of 
Genoa,  and  afterward  to  the  Campo  Santo,  its  strange  ceme- 
tery, where  many  of  the  monuments  are  statues  represent- 
ing the  dead  as  they  looked  while  alive.  We  spend  some 
time  in  the  shops,  admiring  the  fine  silks  and  velvets  and 
the  silver  and   gold   filigree  work  for  which  the  city  is 


4IO 


ITALY. 


noted,  and  then  take  a  train  for  Rome,  stopping  at  Pisa, 

Leghorn,  and  Florence  on  the  way. 

At  Pisa  we  see  the  wonderful  leaning   tower,  and  at 

Leghorn  watch  the  making  of  hats  and  straw  braid.     At 

Florence  we  visit  the  great  cathedral,  the  bell  tower  of 

Giotto,  and  the  cele- 
brated picture  galler- 
ies, which  are  among 
the  finest  of  the  world. 
We  stroll  along  the 
River  Arno,  which 
flows  through  the 
town,  and  make  ex- 
cursions into  the  fer- 
tile plains  of  Tuscany, 
driving  through  vast 
vineyards  and  groves 
of  olives  and  oranges. 
The  scenery  is  very 
beautiful,  and  we  re- 
gret we  cannot  spend 
months  exploring  the 
country. 

We  make  an  excur- 
sion, however,  to  the 
tiny  republic  of  San 
Marino,  situated  on  a 
a  half  mile  from  the 


"We  see  the  wonderful  leaning  tower. 


rocky  hill  in  the  Apennines,  about 
sea.  This  republic  is,  perhaps,  the  smallest  of  the  world. 
It  is  only  twenty-four  miles  square,  and  it  has  a  popula- 
tion of  only  about  eight  thousand  ;  but  its  inhabitants 
have  governed  themselves  for  hundreds  of  years,  while  the 
other  countries  of  Europe  have  been  governed  by  kings. 


ROME,  THE   CAPITAL   OF  ITALY.  411 


XLII.     ROME,   THE   CAPITAL   OF   ITALY. 

ITALY  is  shaped  like  a  great  boot,  about  half  as  wide  as 
from  New  York  to  Washington,  and  about  as  long 
as  from  New  York  to  Toledo.  The  top  of  the  boot  ex- 
tends out  in  a  wide  flap  up  the  foothills  of  the  Alps,  and 
the  toe  looks  just  as  though  it  were  about  to  kick  the 
island  of  Sicily.  Not  far  from  the  center  of  the  front  of 
the  boot,  just  where  the  middle  of  the  shin  would  be,  if  it 
were  a  human  leg,  a  little  river  flows  out  of  the  Apennine 
Mountains  down  to  the  Mediterranean.  It  passes  over  a 
wide  plain  called  the  Campagna,  and  as  it  nears  the  sea  it 
flows  by  seven  little  hills,  which,  for  more  than  two  thou- 
sand years,  have  formed  the  site  of  one  of  the  greatest 
cities  of  the  world.  This  river  is  the  Tiber,  and  the  city 
is  Rome,  the  capital  of  Italy. 

When  Rome  was  first  settled,  the  Tiber  was  deeper 
than  it  now  is,  and  sea-going  vessels  came  right  up  to 
the  hills.  The  town,  being  on  the  hills,  could  be  easily 
defended ;  and  the  rich  country  about  it  was  well  fitted  for 
pasture  and  farming.  There  were  easy  ways  over  the 
mountains  to  other  parts  of  Italy,  and  ships  could  be  sent 
out  to  all  the  lands  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  so  you  see  the 
situation  of  Rome  helped  to  make  it  a  great  city  and  the 
capital  of  Italy.  The  race  which  founded  it  was  brave  and 
warlike,  and  it  soon  conquered  the  whole  Italian  peninsula, 
and  made  war  upon  nation  after  nation  outside,  until  in 
time  it  formed  the  great  Roman  Empire,  and  became 
master  of  almost  all  the  known  world. 

At  that  time  the  chief  civilized  nations  lived  about  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  Italy  has  the  most  central  position 
of  all  countries  on  this  sea.     It  has  excellent  harbors,  and 


412  ITALY. 

one  of  the  best  situations  for  commerce  and  trade.  The 
Romans  cultivated  their  territory  largely  by  means  of  the 
slaves  that  they  took  in  war,  and  as  time  went  on  they  grew 
richer  and  richer.  Their  city  became  not  only  the  capital 
of  the  world,  but  also  the  center  of  all  that  was  inspiring 
in  art  and  learning.  The  Romans  had  magnificent  palaces 
and  great  public  works.  Their  scholars  wrote  books, 
which  are  even  now  studied  in  our  colleges ;  and  their 
language,  laws,  and  customs  form  a  part  of  our  civilization. 

In  time  the  Roman  Empire  was  broken  to  pieces,  but 
we  shall  find  reminders  of  it  in  the  ruins  which  are  scat- 
tered everywhere  throughout  the  city.  Centuries  later 
Rome  came  under  the  control  of  the  Pope,  the  head  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  This  church  was  the  chief  one  of 
Europe  for  hundreds  of  years,  and  it  was  the  founder 
of  another  phase  of  civilization.  Under  it  great  cathe- 
drals were  built,  colleges  were  established,  and  some  of  the 
finest  of  the  paintings  of  the  world  were  made.  We  shall 
see  evidences  of  all  this  in  old  Rome.  We  shall,  at  the 
same  time,  see  the  Rome  of  to-day,  the  capital  of  modern 
Italy,  and  the  home  of  the  King  and  his  Parliament. 

We  leave  our  hotel  and  drive  to  the  top  of  the  Pincian 
Hill  for  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  city,  winding  our  way  up 
over  roads  shaded  with  cypress  trees,  and  lined  with  gar- 
dens and  beautiful  flowers.  At  the  end  of  our  drive  we 
find  ourselves  on  a  terrace  high  above  Rome,  north  of  the 
city,  which  covers  the  hills  to  the  southward  and  fills  the 
valley  of  the  Tiber  winding  along  not  far  below  us. 

That  mass  of  huge  buildings,  with  the  high  dome  above 
them,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  is  Saint  Peter's 
cathedral,  and  the  palace  of  the  Vatican,  where  the  Pope 
lives.  The  square  at  our  feet,  with  the  obelisk  in  it,  is  the 
Piazza  del  Pppolo,  and  that  long,  straight  street,  which 


ROME,  THE  CAPITAL  OF  ITALY. 


413 


cuts  its  way  through  the  city,  dividing  it  almost  in  half,  is 
the  Corso,  one  of  the  chief  business  streets  of  the  Rome 
of  to-day.  Turning  to  the  right  we  see  a  great  wall  wind- 
ing its  irregular  way  about  the  town,  inclosing  many  ruins, 
some  rising  out  of  gardens  and  vineyards.  That  is  the 
wall  of  old  Rome,  which  was  fourteen  miles  in  circumfer- 
ence, but  which  incloses  only  a  part  of  modern  Rome. 

The  ruins  are  of  wonderful  interest.     We  can  see  some 
of  them  from  the  Pincian  Hill.     That  vast  amphitheater 


"  —  all  that  is  left  of  the  Coliseum." 

beyond  the  buildings  in  front  of  us,  with  its  walls  half  in 
ruins,  is  all  that  is  left  of  the  Coliseum,  the  greatest  show 
ground  of  all  times.  There  lions  and  tigers  and  wild 
beasts  once  fought  together;  there  half -naked  men  tried  to 
kill  one  another  with  swords  and  spears ;  and  there  men, 
women,  and  children  were  thrown  to  wild  beasts  because 
they  were  Christians,  to  give  the  heathen  Romans  a  holi- 
day show.  A  little  to  the  left  of  the  Coliseum  is  the 
Forum,  where  the  Romans  held  their  meetings  when  the 
city  was  a  republic,  and  where  the  greatest  of  the  Roman 
orations  were  uttered.     It  now  looks  more  like  an  exca- 


414 


ITALY. 


vation  for  a  building  than  anything  else.  The  Rome 
of  olden  times  was  many  feet  below  the  Rome  of  to- 
day, but  the  Forum  has  been  dug  out,  and  it  now  forms 
a  great  pit,  filled  with  broken  columns  and  blocks  of 
marble,  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 


The  Forum. 


Notice  the  great  building  above  the  Forum.  That  is 
the  Capitol,  on  the  site  of  the  citadel  of  old  Rome.  It 
is  there  that  the  Italian  Senate  meets,  and  there  also  is 
a  museum  in  which  are  some  of  the  finest  statues  which 
have  come  down  from  old  Rome.  Everywhere  we  turn, 
there  are  so  many  wonderful  buildings  and  ruins  that  it 
will  be  impossible  for  us  to  visit  them  all.  The  city  has 
scores  of  museums.  It  has  many  picture  galleries ;  it 
has  priceless  collections  of  ancient  manuscripts,  and  is 
celebrated  for  its  paintings,  sculpture,  and  architecture, 
as  well  as  for  its  business  and  social  advantages. 


ROME,  THE  CAPITAL  OF  ITALY.  415 

We  engage  carriages  at  the  Pincian  Hill  and  drive  about 
through  the  streets.  There  are  many  old  palaces,  with 
modern  buildings  among  them ;  there  are  fine  stores  with 
plate  glass  windows ;  there  are  street  cars,  telegraph  wires, 
and  all  the  appointments  of  our  most  modern  cities.  We 
can  hardly  reaUze  we  are  in  a  town  two  thousand  years 
old.  We  stop  in  the  People's  Square  and  take  a  drink 
from  the  fountain,  where  the  water  spurts  forth  from  the 
mouths  of  the  lions ;  we  pause  a  moment  before  the  great 
obelisk  from  Egypt,  and  then  drive  on  through  the  Corso, 
passing  magnificent  turnouts  filled  with  richly  dressed 
ladies  and  gentlemen. 

The  Corso  is  crowded.  The  better  classes  are  dressed 
as  we  are,  and  the  people  upon  the  streets  look  not  unlike 
those  of  Paris  and  London.  Now  and  then  we  see  a 
peasant  in  a  cap  and  short  jacket,  his  trousers  held  up  by 
a  sash  about  the  waist,  and  now  a  rosy-cheeked  maiden  in 
short  skirts,  with  a  bright  handkerchief  tied  round  her 
head.  There  are  peddlers  going  about  with  their  wares 
on  their  heads,  and  hucksters  driving  donkeys  and  mules. 
There  are  priests  everywhere,  walking  along  singly  and  in 
pairs,  or  in  processions  from  one  part  of  the  town  to  another. 
They  wear  long  gowns,  some  white,  some  black,  and  some 
brown,  and  many  have  high  hats  and  cowls.  There  are 
processions  of  nuns  and  sisters  of  charity,  for  Rome  is 
still  the  chief  city  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  as  such  it  is 
a  holy  place  to  Catholics  all  the  world  over. 

We  visit  Saint  Peter's  cathedral.  It  is  by  far  the  largest 
church  in  the  world,  and  we  feel  lost  within  it.  We  next 
wander  about  outside  the  Vatican,  where  the  Pope  lives. 
He  has  a  magnificent  palace,  with  four  thousand  rooms, 
and  a  library  of  one  hundred  thousand  volumes,  including 
some  of  the  most  valuable  manuscripts  ever  written. 


4i6 


ITALY. 


"We  visit  Saint  Peter's  Cathedral." 

Some  of  our  mornings  are  spent  in  driving  about  outside 
Rome,  in  the  Campagna;  where  one  day  our  guide  takes 
us  down  under  the  earth  into  the  Catacombs,  which  are 
vast  caves  and  tunnels  cut  out  of  the  soft  volcanic  rock. 
There  are  miles  of  these  tunnels,  some  lined  with  cells  and 
shelves  which  contain  human  bones.  They  are  not  far 
from  the  city,  and  were  probably  first  dug  as  the  burial 
places  of  the  Romans.  Later  on,  when  the  Christians 
were  persecuted,  they  fled  to  them  for  refuge,  and  lived 
here  for  years,  away  down  out  of  the  light  of  the  sun, 
having  their  food  brought  in  at  night.  Our  guide  goes  in 
front  with  a  light,  taking  us  through  tunnel  after  tunnel, 
and  winding  his  way  this  way  and  that.  We  follow  him 
closely  and  hold  tightly  to  one  another's  hands,  trembling 
at  the  thought  of  being  lost  away  down  here  under  the 
ground,  and  of  trying  in  vain  to  find  our  way  out. 


•     NAPLES  AND   MOUNT  VESUVIUS.  41  / 

We  visit  the  palaces  of  the  king,  and  spend  some  time 
in  Parliament  watching  the  Italians  make  laws  for  them- 
selves. We  go  to  the  government  buildings,  where  we 
discover  that  Italy  still  holds  an  important  place  among 
the  countries  of  Europe.  We  learn  that  it  has  a  great 
army  and  navy,  and  that  its  inhabitants  are  fast  growing  in 
intelligence,  although  the  education  of  the  common  people 
is  still  far  below  that  of  the  French,  Germans,  or  EngUsh. 
The  law  requires  that  all  children  be  sent  to  school,  but  it 
is  not  always  enforced,  and  many  of  the  men  and  women 
cannot  read  nor  write. 

We  ask  as  to  Italy's  trade,  and  are  informed  that  it  is 
rapidly  growing,  and  that  the  people  are  among  our  good 
customers.  They  are  importing  a  great  deal  of  grain, 
cotton,  and  other  things  from  America,  and  sending  back 
fruits  and  olive  oil,  as  well  as  silk  and  wool  and  other 
goods,  in  exchange. 

XLIII.     NAPLES   AND    MOUNT   VESUVIUS. 

THE  Italians  have  a  saying,  "  See  Naples  and  die,"  for, 
they  say,  you  will  then  have  seen  the  most  beautiful 
city  of  the  world.  And  indeed  it  is  beautiful.  The  sky  is 
almost  always  bright,  and  it  is  nowhere  brighter  than  at 
Naples.  The  Mediterranean  is  almost  always  blue,  and 
at  the  Bay  of  Naples  its  color  is  glorious.  The  city,  as  it 
rises  about  the  bay,  tier  above  tier,  seems  a  city  of  palaces. 
There  are  hazy  blue  mountains  behind  it,  and  south  of  it 
is  the  great  brown  volcano  of  Vesuvius,  with  its  steaming 
cone  standing  out  against  the  blue  sky. 

But  let  us  see  how  it  looks  in  the  city  itself.  We  leave 
our  hotel  and  climb  up  through   the    streets.      Many  of 


41 8  ITALY. 

them  are  steep,  and  we  are  always  going  up  or  down  hill. 
The  high  buildings  are  close  to  the  sidewalks,  and  the 
streets  are  so  narrow  that  in  places  the  walls  shut  out 
the  sun.  They  are  not  over  clean,  and  in  some  streets 
the  smells  are  offensive.  The  people  live  in  flats  or 
apartments,  and  in  the  poorer  quarters  of  the  city  whole 
families  dwell  in  one  room. 

What  curious  things  the  people  do  on  the  streets !  We 
see  men  and  women  sitting  down  on  the  pavements  making 
their  toilets.  There  is  a  woman  combing  her  hair,  and 
here  is  one  washing  her  baby.  There  is  a  cobbler  at  his 
bench  soling  a  pair  of  old  shoes,  and  beside  him  a  tailor  is 
working  away. 

What  a  lot  of  children  there  are  everywhere.  There 
are  two  babies  sprawling  on  the  edge  of  the  gutter !  Here 
comes  a  boy  of  eight  driving  a  donkey,  and  there  is  another 
with  a  can  in  his  hand  pulHng  along  two  milk  goats  from 
door  to  door.  He  is  one  of  the  little  milkmen  of  the  city, 
and  is  probably  helping  his  father,  whom  we  cee  with 
those  goats  farther  on. 

There  are  donkeys  carrying  all  sorts  of  things.  Here 
comes  one  loaded  with  fruit,  and  behind  are  two  others 
ridden  by  boys.  The  donkeys  are  not  bigger  than  New- 
foundland dogs,  and  their  ears  are  almost  as  long  as  their 
legs.  Many  of  the  Neapolitan  boys  have  their  own  donkeys, 
as  our  boys  sometimes  have  ponies. 

Do  you  like  roasted  chestnuts .?  There  are  men  selling 
them  here  on  almost  every  block.  They  have  little  fur- 
naces and  basins  of  charcoal,  on  which  they  roast  chest- 
nuts out  in  the  streets.  We  pass  fruit  stands  every  now 
and  then,  and  buy  delicious  pears  for  ten  cents  a  dozen, 
and  oranges  two  for  a  cent. 

See   the  crowd  of   men   and  women   about   that   cook 


NAPLES  AND   MOUNT   VESUVIUS. 


419 


stand !  They  are  buying  roast  sausages  and  stewed  maca- 
roni. Italy  is  famous  for  its  macaroni,  and  quantities  of  it 
are  exported  to  our  country  every  year. 


See,  there  is  a 


man  eating  some  now !     He  twists  his  fork  around   and 
around  in  the  dish,  and  takes  a  great  mass  of  it  in  at  one 
gulp.     He  does  not  cut  it,  but  sucks  in  the  long  strings 
iuntil  the  whole  has  gone  down  his  throat. 


Naples. 

Suppose  we  visit  one  of  the  factories  and  learn  how 
macaroni  is  made.  Such  factories  are  to  be  seen  in  all 
parts  of  Italy,  for  macaroni  forms  a  large  part  of  the  food 
of  the  people.  It  is  made  in  different  sizes  and  shapes, 
sometimes  in  long  strings,  sometimes  in  pipes  as  big 
around  as  your  finger,  and  sometimes  in  sticks  about  as 


420 


ITALY. 


thick  as  a  knitting  needle.     The  finer  kinds  are  called  ver- 
micelli and  spaghetti. 

We  see  the  tubes  of  white  dough  drying  on  the  racks  in 
front  of  the  factory,  and  when  we  go  in  find  a  score  of 
men  and  boys  hard  at  work.  Each  boy  is  so  covered  with 
flour  that  his  dark,  rosy  face  looks  almost  ghastly  in  con- 
trast with  his  sparkling  black  eyes.     He  is  in  his  bare  feet, 


Drying  Macaroni. 

and  his  sleeves  are  rolled  up  to  his  shoulders.  The  men 
are  mixing  the  flour  into  dough,  and  kneading  it  with  great 
bars  so  fastened  to  hinges  that  they  can  press  the  dough 
down  on  the  table.  After  it  is  thoroughly  kneaded  they 
carry  it  to  a  cylinder,  in  which  there  are  many  small  holes, 
so  arranged  that  it  can  be  pressed  through  them.  It  comes 
out  in  long  pipes  or  sticks,  which  the  boys  carry  to  the 


NAPLES   AND   MOUNT  VESUVIUS.  42 1 

racks  in  the  sun,  or  to  the  hot  drying  rooms  which  some 
factories  have  for  the  purpose. 

Let  us  stroll  on  down  to  the  bay.  It  is  filled  with  ship- 
ping, for  Naples  is  the  chief  port  of  the  Italian  peninsula, 
and  its  harbor  is  one  of  the  finest  of  Europe.  The  city  is 
as  big  as  St.  Louis,  and  has  a  vast  trade  with  all  parts  of 
the  Mediterranean,  with  northern  Europe,  and  with  North 
and  South  America.  It  also  does  a  great  business  in 
fish  and  in  coral  and  sponges.  It  has  many  fishing  vessels, 
and  its  people  go  fishing,  not  only  in  the  Mediterranean, 
but  out  to  the  Atlantic  and  elsewhere. 

But  the  most  interesting  thing  about  Naples  is  not  in 
the  city  itself.  It  is  the  great  volcano  outside,  only  a 
short  drive  away.  Vesuvius  is  the  only  active  volcano  on 
the  continent  of  Europe,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing volcanoes  of  the  whole  world.  It  is  early  morning 
when  we  start  out  to  explore  it.  The  first  part  of  our 
journey  is  in  a  carriage  driven  by  a  Neapohtan  coachman, 
who  cracks  his  whip  every  minute  and  keeps  his  team  on 
the  gallop.  We  rattle  out  of  the  city  over  pavements  of 
lava,  now  almost  running  over  a  baby,  and  now  making  the 
dogs  howl,  as  with  drooping  tails  they  leap  out  of  our  way. 
We  go  through  small  villages  of  lava-built  houses,  by  vine- 
yards and  gardens  Ayalled  with  lava,  and  then  up  through 
foothills  of  volcanic  sand,  until  we  enter  a  region  which  is 
all  bare,  brown  lava.  There  is  lava  everywhere  and  in  all 
sorts  of  shapes.  We  pass  through  seas  and  rivers  of  lava 
which  once  flowed  like  fire,  but  which  now  are  cold  and 
dead ;  and  as  we  look  up,  see  a  column  of  steam  hanging 
like  a  gigantic  umbrella  over  a  brown  lava  mountain,  the 
volcano  of  Vesuvius. 

The  mountain  is  perfectly  bare.  There  is  not  a  bit  of 
grass  to  be  seen  anywhere.     It  is  all  lava,  ashes,  and  vol- 


422  ITALY. 

canic  sand.  The  road  going  up  winds  in  and  out  until  it  at 
last  becomes  so  steep  that  we  must  leave  the  carriages  and 
mount  donkeys.  When  about  two  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea  we  reach  the  observatory,  where  instruments  are  kept  to 
register  the  movements  of  the  mighty  volcano.  How  the 
earth  rumbles !  It  was  shaking  as  we  rode  up  on  our 
donkeys,  and  here  by  the  instruments  we  can  see  just 
what  motion  is  going  on  away  down  in  the  heart  of  the 
mountain. 

The  director  of  the  observatory  informs  us  that  Vesu- 
vius is  always  more  or  less  active,  but  that  there  is  no 
present  danger.  He  describes  the  first  recorded  eruption, 
telling  us  how  a  little  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago  the  volcano  was  covered  with  farms,  the  slopes  being 
cultivated  almost  to  the  top.  Then  there  were  vineyards 
all  over  the  land  where  the  lava  and  ashes  now  are,  and 
hot  springs  on  the  edge  of  the  mountains,  where  the  rich 
Romans  came  for  their  health  and  for  sport.  There  were 
beautiful  towns  on  the  plains  near  by,  and,  among  others, 
the  two  fashionable  resorts  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum. 
Pompeii  contained  about  twenty-five  thousand  people.  It 
was  a  rich  residence  city,  and  its  inhabitants  had  beautiful 
homes,  temples,  and  theaters.  The  rich  were  living  in  fine 
style,  giving  parties  and  dinners,  and  cjriving  about  in  their 
chariots  with  gay  prancing  horses.  The  poor  were  at  work 
at  their  trades,  the  merchants  were  selling  goods  in  the 
stores,  the  children  were  going  to  school,  and  all  sorts  of 
business  were  being  carried  on,  when  one  day,  without 
warning,  the  great  mountain  burst  forth,  sending  vast 
volumes  of  steam,  ashes,  burning  rocks,  and  mud  high 
into  the  air.  There  were  so  many  ashes  that  they  dark- 
ened the  sun  and  turned  the  day  into  night.  Even  at 
Rome,  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  northward,  the  sun  was 


NAPLES  AND   MOUNT  VESUVIUS. 


423 


hidden.  The  people  thought  that  the  end  of  the  world 
had  come,  and  that  an  age  when  it  would  be  always  night 
had  set  in. 

At  the  same  time  it  rained  mud,  and  rivers  of  boiling 
hot  mud  flowed  out  of  the  crater  down  over  the  plain. 
The  horses,  sheep,  and  cattle  which  were  pasturing  there 
were  drowned,  the  fields,  the  vineyards,  and  gardens  were 


Vesuvius  in  Eruption. 

covered,  and  in  the  towns  even  the  tallest  buildings  were 
soon  buried.  They  all  disappeared,  and  the  region  became 
a  great  plain  of  ashes  and  mud.  As  time  went  on  new 
towns  grew  up  on  the  plains,  and  crops  of  all  kinds  were 
raised  there.  The  buried  cities  were  blotted  out  of  the 
memory  of  man,  as  the  volcano  had  blotted  them  from  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

So  it  remained  until  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  and 

CARP.   EUROPE  —  26 


424  ITALY. 

fifty  years  ago,  when  a  peasant  who  was  digging  a  well 
struck  his  spade  against  a  statue.  He  dug  it  out,  and  soon 
it  was  found  that  there  was  a  city  down  there,  buried  under 
the  earth.  The  government  of  Italy  took  possession  of  the 
place,  and  for  years  it  has  had  men  at  work  unearthing 
the  city.  The  scholars  began  to  investigate  the  history  of 
the  region,  and  it  was  found  that  the  site  of  the  lost  city  of 
Pompeii  had  been  discovered. 

The  great  eruption  occurred  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
first  century  of  our  era,  and  for  a  long  thne  thereafter  the 
volcano  lay  quiet.  During  the  eighteenth  century  there 
was  another  terrible  eruption,  and  in  1822  the  whole  top 
of  the  mountain  burst  off  and  formed  a  great  chasm,  three 
miles  in  circumference,  and  about  half  a  mile  deep.  Since 
then  other  eruptions  have  caused  streams  of  lava  to  flow 
out  of  the  crater,  until  now  Vesuvius  seems  to  be  only  a 
vast  mass  of  lava,  rock,  sand,  and  ashes. 

Leaving  the  observatory,  we  again  mount  our  donkeys 
and  make  our  way  up  the  mountain.  At  last  we  reach  the 
station  from  where  we  are  to  ride  up  to  the  crater  by  rail. 
The  railroad  is  a  little  like  the  one  up  Pikes  Peak,  but 
more  like  one  of  our  cable  car  lines.  The  track  has  three 
rails,  one  in  the  center  which  supports  the  weight  of  the 
car,  and  others  at  each  side  for  the  guiding  wheels,  which 
keep  the  car  from  jumping  the  track.  The  cable  attached 
to  the  car  runs  around  a  wheel  at  the  top  of  the  mountain, 
and  is  moved  by  an  engine  at  the  station  below.  The  sides 
of  the  car  are  open,  and  we  get  a  magnificent  view  of  the 
Mediterranean  as  we  rise  through  the  volcanic  sand  up  the 
steep  mountain.  We  go  rapidly  upward,  and  at  last  we 
stop  near  the  crater,  over  four  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
Here  we  hire  other  guides,  and  pick  our  way  over  the  thin 
coating  of  lava  to  the  mouth  of  the  volcano. 


NAPLES  AND   MOUNT  VESUVIUS. 


425 


Pompeii. 


The  air  is  hot  and  full  of  sulphur  fumes.  We  cough, 
and  hold  our  handkerchiefs  to  our  faces  in  a  vain  effort  to 
keep  out  the  fumes.  The  wind  is  blowing  the  steam  away 
from  the  crater,  and  we  walk  carefully  over  the  crust  and 
look  down  into  a  vast  pit  walled  with  yellow  sulphur,  in 
the  "bottom  of  which  a  lake  of  fire  is  seething,  sending  up 
steam,  ashes,  brimstone,  and  rocks.  Now  it  seems  to  be 
quiet,  and  now  it  bursts  forth,  throwing  stones  high  up 
into  the  air.  They  fall  back,  and  we  can  hear  them  splash 
away  down  there  in  the  crater.  But  now  the  wind  changes. 
It  is  rising  into  a  gale,  and  the  stones  are  falling  almost  at 
our  feet.  Our  guides  drag  us  back  and  hurry  us  away,'  for 
fear  we  may  all  be  killed  by  the  burning  hot  stones. 

This  is  only  a  gentle  eruption.  When  the  great  out- 
bursts occur  the  noise  is  like  that  of  a  battle,  and  rocks 


426  ITALY. 

weighing  many  tons  art  shot  upwards  for  hundreds  of  feet. 
About  fifty  years  ago  twenty  sightseers  were  killed  where 
we  now  stand,  by  a  sudden  eruption  of  lava,  pieces  of  rock 
being  thrown  a  mile  high.  At  such  times  the  steam  rises 
to  a  height  of  more  than  two  miles,  and  the  whole  moun- 
tain is  covered  by  an  umbrella  of  ashes  and  vapor  more 
than  five  miles  in  height. 

How  warm  the  earth  is  !  We  dare  not  stand  still.  We 
seem  to  be  walking  upon  a  hot  stove ;  we  smell  our  shoes 
burning ;  we  bend  down  and  touch  the  lava  with  our  fingers, 
but  draw  them  away  quickly,  smarting  with  the  heat. 

One  of  the  guides  asks  us  to  look  at  the  cracks  in  the 
earth ;  and  we  see  golden  streams  of  molten  lava  flowing 
through  them  under  our  feet.  He  thrusts  an  iron  rod  into 
one  of  the  cracks  and  brings  out  a  lump  of  the  red-hot 
metal.  He  asks  us  for  a  penny  and  he  presses  it  into  the 
mass  with  a  stick.  He  then  drops  the  lava  off  the  rod  into 
a  bucket  of  water  which  a  boy  has  brought  up.  The  water 
hisses  and  steams,  but  the  lava  soon  cools  and  the  guide 
takes  it  out.  Our  penny  is  now  embedded  in  the  lava  like 
a  raisin  in  a  bun,  and  we  take  it  home  as  a  relic. 

But  see,  the  boy  is  pulling  some  eggs  out  of  his  pocket ! 
He  points  to  the  water,  and  offers  to  cook  them  for  us. 
He  rests  the  bucket  over  a  wide  crack  where  the  molten 
lava  is  not  far  from  the  surface.  The  intense  heat  soon 
boils  the  water,  and  the  eggs  are  cooked  hard.  We  carry 
them  with  us  back  down  the  mountain,  and  eat  them  with 
our  lunch  at  the  railroad  station  below,  priding  ourselves 
that  we  are  among  the  few  Americans  who  have  eaten 
eggs  cooked  on  volcanoes. 

We  then  ride  back  to  the  carriages,  and  drive  over  the 
plain  to  the  site  of  the  once  buried  city  of  Pompeii.  There 
is  a  great  wall  about  it  made  of  the  ashes  and  stones  which 


NAPLES  AND   MOUNT  VESUVIUS.  427 

have  been  already  dug  out ;  and  we  find  many  boys  and 
men  digging,  and  carrying  the  stuff  out  in  baskets  on  their 
backs  and  their  heads. 

A  large  part  of  Pompeii  is  already  uncovered,  and  we 
walk  through  streets  walled  with  the  curious  buildings 
which  were  blotted  out  by  Vesuvius  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago.  The  earth  and  ashes  have  so  preserved  the  buildings 
that  they  look  to-day  almost  as  they  did  at  the  time  of  the 
eruption.  The  roadways  are  paved  with  stone,  and  in 
some  of  them  we  can  see  the  ruts  made  by  the  wheels  of 
the  chariots.  We  walk  through  the  amphitheater  where 
the  people  had  their  shows,  and  sit  down  on  the  marble 
seats  of  the  bath  houses  where  the  boys  of  Pompeii  sat 
when  they  had  finished  their  baths  centuries  ago. 

We  wander  about  through  the  houses,  peopling  them  with 
their  old  Roman  owners.  Many  buildings  are  of  brick  and 
many  of  stone.  They  are  nearly  all  of  one  or  two  stories 
and  some  are  very  large.  They  had  wooden  roofs  which 
were  burned  off  by  the  ashes.  Many  of  the  houses  have 
walls  covered  with  paintings,  and  in  some  beautiful  statues 
in  bronze  and  marble  were  found.  Some  had  fine  paint- 
ings and  all  sorts  of  beautiful  things  in  metals  and  carv- 
ings. The  floors  of  many  were  formed  of  different  colored 
stones,  fitted  together  in  mosaic  pictures,  and  the  Latin  word 
**  Salve"  or  "  welcome,"  was  carved  over  their  doors ;  while 
in  one  entrance  floor  there  was  a  mosaic  picture  of  a  fierce 
dog  gnashing  his  teeth,  and  tugging  at  a  rope  as  though 
he  wished  to  get  at  you,  while  at  his  feet  were  the  words, 
"  Cave  Canem,"  or  "  Beware  of  the  dog." 

We  are  interested  in  the  business  parts  of  Pompeii, 
where  there  are  streets  of  shops  with  marble  counters, 
where  the  merchants  were  selling  their  goods  when  the 
mighty  volcanic  flood  came.     We  peep  into  a  public  bake 


428  SPAIN. 

oven,  in  which  black  loaves  of  burnt  bread  were  found 
when  the  mud  and  ashes  were  first  dug  away.  We  see 
casts  of  men,  women,  and  children,  and  even  of  dogs,  made 
by  pouring  plaster  of  Paris  into  the  holes  which  their  bodies 
formed  in  the  ashes ;  and  when  we  again  visit  the  Museum 
of  Naples,  we  are  shown  cooking  utensils,  toilet  articles, 
rings,  earrings  and  bracelets,  fishhooks  and  knives,  and 
thousands  of  other  articles  of  every  description,  all  in 
common  use  among  these  people  when,  without  warning, 
they  were  destroyed  by  the  ashes  and  boiUng  mud  of  the 
terrible  mountain. 

XLIV.     RURAL   SPAIN. 

WE  have  crossed  the  Mediterranean  Sea  from  Naples 
to  Barcelona,  and  are  now  travehng  over  the  high- 
lands of  Spain.  The  country  is  different  from  any  we  have 
yet  visited.  The  sun  is  wonderfully  bright;  there  are  few 
clouds ;  the  air  is  dry,  and  the  weather  is  hot.  We  are 
now  on  the  great  peninsula  which  forms  the  end  of  south- 
western Europe,  comprising  the  kingdoms  of  Spain  and 
Portugal.  It  begins  at  the  Pyrenees,  and  extends  so  close 
to  Africa  that  we  could  go  from  Gibraltar  to  that  continent 
in  a  small  boat  in  a  very  few  hours. 

The  Spanish  peninsula  is  twice  as  large  as  Great  Britain, 
and  larger  than  either  Germany  or  France.  It  is  a  high 
plateau  crossed  by  many  ranges  of  snow-clad  mountains, 
with  rich  valleys  and  dreary  plains  lying  among  them.  It 
has  but  few  navigable  rivers,  and  although  it  is  washed  on 
almost  all  sides  by  the  sea,  its  coasts  are  so  steep  that  it 
has  very  few  harbors.  On  the  plateau  the  winters  are 
cold,  and  the  summers  exceedingly  hot,  and  in  the  far 


RURAL  SPA.IN. 


429 


south  it  is  so  warm  that  bananas,  dates,  and  other  tropical 
fruits  can  be  grown. 

We  reach  the  hills  soon  after  leaving  Barcelona,  and 
ride  for  miles  in  the  mountains,  now  passing  through 
forests,  and  now  crawling  along  above  magnificent  valleys 
with  their  many  colored  crops  spread  out  like  a  vast  quilt 
below  us.  Now  our  train  flies  by  orange  groves,  and  now 
through  a  country  where  for  miles  there  are  olive  groves. 
We  enter  dense  woods  of  chestnuts  and  oaks,  and  spend 
days  upon  high  plains  where  vast  flocks  of  sheep  are  graz- 
ing, watched  by  queerly  dressed  shepherds  assisted  by  dogs. 
The  sheep  are  the  famous  Spanish  merinos.  This  breed  of 
sheep  has  been  introduced  into  Australia,  Argentina,  and 
the  other  great  sheep-raising  parts  of  the  world. 

There    are    many  ^^^^^^^ 


small  towns  with 
stone  or  brick  build- 
ings covered  with 
stucco  and  roofed 
with  red  tiles.  There 
are  numerous  vil- 
lages in  which  the 
farmers  live,  going 
out  to  their  work  in 
the  fields.  Sometimes 
their  farms  are  so  far 
away  that  they  use 
donkeys  to  ride  back 
and  forth. 

The  roads  are  poor, 
and  in  the  moun- 
tains everything  is 
carried  about  on  the 


—  a  donkey  carrying  two  little  boys.' 


430 


SPAIN. 


backs  of  donkeys  and  mules.  See  that  fat  farmer  riding 
up  the  road  at  the  side  of  the  track !  He  is  as  big  as  his 
donkey,  and  his  long  legs  almost  touch  the  ground  as  he 
urges  the  little  beast  onward.  He  wears  a  broad-brimmed, 
sharp-crowned  hat,  and  has  a  great  cloak  on  his  shoulders. 
Farther  down  the  road  is  a  donkey  carrying  two  Uttle 
boys,    and   still   farther   on   a   drove   of   donkeys   loaded 

with  grain,  each  having 
a  bag  on  his  back.  They 
have  neither  bridles  nor 
saddles,  and  are  being 
driven  by  a  rosy -cheeked, 
barefooted  boy  in  the 
rear.  Behind  comes  a 
boy  with  a  cart  load  of 
grass;  he  is  leading  a 
little  donkey  which  is 
drawing  the  cart.  We 
see  donkeys  laden  with 
fruit,  and  donkeys  so 
covered  with  loads  of  hay  that  the  hay  seems  to  be  walk- 
ing off  on  four  legs.  There  are  also  mules  similarly  loaded, 
and  the  whole  of  this  part  of  Spain  seems  to  be  going  mule- 
back  or  donkey-back. 

Now  we  have  left  the  mountains,  and  are'  out  on  the 
plains.  See  the  huge  ox  carts  lumbering  along  the  wide 
roads !  Some  of  them  are  piled  high  with  grain.  The 
oxen  are  yoked  to  the  tongue  of  the  cart  by  a  bar  which 
rests  on  their  necks  and  is  fastened  to  their  horns,  so  that 
they  pull  the  loads  along  by  their  heads,  and  not  by  the 
shoulders  as  our  oxen  do. 

Notice  the  man  plowing  in  that  field  over  there.  He  is 
goading  his  oxen  along  with  a  stick  with  a  sharp-pointed 


Behind  comes  a  boy  with  a  cart  load 
of  grass." 


RURAL  SPAIN. 


431 


Steel  in  the  end.  How  simple  the  plow  is !  It  is  only  a 
piece  of  rough  wood  tipped  with  iron,  and  it  merely 
scratches  the  soil.  That  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  farm 
tools  of  the  country. 

More  than  half  of  the  Spaniards  are  farmers,  but  they 
farm  very  poorly.  They  raise  quantities  of  wheat,  barley, 
corn,  and  rye,  but  they  do  not  get  half  so  much  out  of  the 
land  as  they  might  with  better  tools. 


"See  the  huge  ox  carts! 


A  large  part  of  Spain  is  so  dry  that  little  will  grow  upon 
it,  but  there  are  irrigated  provinces  which  are  exceed- 
ingly fertile,  and  yield  abundant  crops.  They  produce  the 
finest  of  olives  and  grapes,  oranges  and  lemons,  and  all 
sorts  of  vegetables.  Take,  for  instance,  the  lands  near  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  about  Malaga  in  southeastern  Spain. 
In  that  region  are  grown  the  big  green  grapes  sold  in  our 


432  SPAIN. 

Stores.  The  soil  of  the  vineyards  is  of  a  bright  red  color, 
and  it  is  so  rich  that  every  bit  of  it  is  used.  The  vines  are 
planted  in  terraces  up  the  sides  of  the  hills  in  regular  rows, 
and  only  a  few  feet  apart.  They  are  carefully  tended,  and 
a  little  trench  is  dug  about  each  vine  to  catch  the  water 
when  it  rains.  The  grapes  are  packed  in  cork  dust,  and 
thus  shipped  to  all  parts  of  Europe  and  to  the  United 
States.  Other  varieties  are  made  into  raisins,  and  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  pounds  of  large  Muscatel  raisins  are 
exported  every  year  from  Malaga  Bay.  In  other  provinces 
wine  is  made  in  large  quantities,  and  in  some  regions  there 
are  so  many  vineyards  that  we  are  reminded  of  our  travels 
through  the  wine  country  of  France  north  of  the  Pyrenees. 

Another  fruit  of  great  value  to  Spain  is  the  olive.  There 
are  olive  orchards  everywhere,  and  at  one  place  we  leave 
the  train  to  visit  a  hacienda,  where  they  are  picking  the 
fruit,  and  turning  it  into  the  oil  we  use  on  our  salads.  The 
old  Spaniard  who  owns  the  farm  bids  us  welcome.  As 
we  walk  along  with  him  he  tells  us  that  his  house  is  at 
our  disposition,  and  that  his  orchard  is  ours.  The  olive 
trees  are  much  like  plum  trees,  save  that  they  are  knotty 
and  gnarly,  and  their  leaves  are  a  darker  green.  On  some 
of  them  the  fruit  has  a  pale  green  color  like  the  olives  sold 
in  our  grocery  stores.  Such  fruit  is  not  yet  ripe,  but  it  is 
pulled  off  at  this  stage  and  salted  for  eating.  On  other 
trees  the  olives  are  of  a  dark  glossy  purple  ;  they  are  ripe, 
and  it  is  of  them  that  they  are  making  the  oil.  There  are 
men  shaking  the  trees,  and  knocking  the  fruit  off  with 
clubs ;  and  rosy-cheeked,  barefooted,  bareheaded  children 
are  gathering  the  olives  from  the  ground,  and  putting  them 
into  the  bags  and  baskets  in  which  they  are  carried  upon 
donkeys  and  mules  to  the  mill. 

There  is  a  man  starting  off  for  the  mill  j  he  has  a  half 


RURAL  SPAIN.  433 

dozen  donkeys,  each  carrying  a  two-bushel  bag.  The  pro- 
prietor asks  us  to  go  with  him,  and  we  follow  the  donkeys 
to  a  rude  building  in  which  a  mule  is  dragging  one  stone, 
shaped  like  a  wheel,  around  through  a  circular  trough  or 
groove  in  the  top  of  another  stone  which  lies  flat.  This  is 
the  grinding  machine.  The  olives  are  put  into  the  trough 
in  the  flat  stone,  and  the  wheel  crushes  them  to  a  pulp  as  it 
rolls  over  them. 

After  being  crushed,  the  olives  are  laid  on  straw  mats, 
and  these  mats  are  placed  one  upon  another,  in  a  press 
where,  by  means  of  a  long,  heavy  beam  in  the  top  as  a 
lever,  the  oil  is  squeezed  out  into  a  rude  tank  below. 
Water  is  mixed  with  the  pulp,  in  order  to  make  the  oil 
flow  the  more  easily.  The  liquid  that  comes  out  is  made 
up  of  water  and  oil,  but  the  oil  rises  to  the  top  and  is 
skimmed  off.  The  squeezed  pulp  is  kept  for  fattening 
hogs,  and  the  oil,  having  been  cleared,  is  put  into  bottles 
for  sale.  Only  the  best  of  the  oil  is  fit  for  the  table,  the 
poorer  kinds  being  used  for  cooking. 

This  olive  plantation  is  not  one  of  the  finest,  but  it  is  a 
fair  type  of  the  plantations  of  Spain.  There  are  many 
other  estates  where  the  olives  are  more  carefully  picked 
and  handled.  On  such  farms  the  fruit  is  pressed  only 
Hghtly  at  first  to  get  out  the  best  oil.  Afterwards  it  is 
ground  up  and  mixed  with  boiling  water  and  pressed 
again. 

Upon  inquiring,  we  learn  that  olives  grow  in  most  parts 
of  Spain,  and  that  they  are  used  everywhere  by  the 
people.  About  one  thirtieth  of  all  the  fertile  land  of  the 
country  is  devoted  to  olive  raising,  and  the  orchards  cover 
more  than  two  million  acres.  The  trees  are  well  tilled. 
They  have  their  first  fruit  when  two  years  old,  and  con- 
tinue to  bear  for  so  long  a  time  that  the  people  have  this 


434 


SPAIN. 


saying :  '*  If  you  would  give  a  lasting  fortune  to  your 
children's  children,  you  have  only  to  plant  olive  trees  for 
them." 

The  Spaniards  use  olive  oil  largely  in  cooking.  We  see 
the  people  eating  it  on  bread  and  vegetables,  and  are  told 
that  it  is  cream  and  butter  to  many  of  the  people,  as  well 
as  their  favorite  dressing  for  salads.  It  takes  the  place 
of  meat  also,  and  many  a  Spaniard,  when  he  takes  a  long 
journey,  hangs  a  wicker  basket  of  olives  to  his  saddle 
horh,  and  eats  them  as  he  rides. 

We  are  delighted  with  the  country  people  of  Spain. 
The  men,  women,  and  children  are  polite,  and  they  wear 

such  gay  costumes  that  we  have 
a  new  picture  wherever  we  look. 
Many  of  the  men  wear  blankets 
about  their  shoulders  ;  they  have 
broad-brimmed  hats  with  sharp 
conical  tops,  and  short  jackets  and 
knee  breeches,  their  legs  below 
the  knees  being  covered  with 
stockings  or  wrapped  around  with 
rags ;  they  wear  sandals  or  queer- 
looking  shoes.  There  are  many 
beautiful  women.  Some  of  the 
peasant  girls  have  caps  with'  tas- 
sels so  long  that  they  hang  down 
their  shoulders.  On  Sunday  they 
wear  dresses  of  black  velvet,  over 
which  they  drape  striped  shawls  of  bright  colors.  Their 
skirts  are  short.  Some  have  gaiters  laced  up  to  their 
knees,  and  others  wear  stockings  bound  with  ribbons 
crossed  over  and  over.  In  the  fields  we  see  barefooted 
women  with  handkerchiefs  on  their  heads,  and  farther  south 


"  We  are  delighted  with  the 
country  people  of  Spain." 


RURAL  SPAIN.  435 

are  many  dark-faced  peasant  men  in  turbans.  Spain  has 
a  large  variety  of  strange  costumes,  nearly  every  province 
having  a  dress  of  its  own. 

In  the  larger  cities  the  people  look  much  as  we  do,  save 
that  the  men  often  wear  cloaks,  and  the  women  have  on 
mantillas  or  veils  instead  of  bonnets ;  they  usually  wear 
black  gowns  when  out  on  the  street.  The  Spaniards  are 
a  fine-looking  race,  and  their  women  are  famous  for  their 
beauty.  The  most  of  them  have  dark  rosy  faces,  dark 
hair,  and  dark  eyes,  although  now  and  then  you  meet  a 
beautiful  blonde.  They  age  rapidly,  however,  the  poor 
through  hard  work  and  the  rich  through  idleness.  The 
women  of  the  upper  classes  take  so  little  exercise  that 
when  middle-aged  they  become  fat  and  dumpy. 

We  are  much  annoyed  by  beggars  as  we  travel  through 
Spain  ;  and  we  observe  that  there  are  many  poor  people. 
The  peasants  live  simply.  Their  chief  food  is  bread  and 
olives,  although  they  sometimes  have  eggs,  or  pork,  or 
goat's  meat.  They  are  fond  of  salt  fish  and  salt  meat,  and 
with  their  neighbors,  the  Portuguese,  are  the  greatest  cod- 
fish eaters  of  the  whole  world. 

The  living  at  the  hotels  is  fairly  good,  although  the  break- 
fasts are  scanty.  When  we  rise  in  the  morning  we  have 
only  a  little  cup  of  chocolate  or  coffee  with  bread  and 
butter ;  this  meal  is  called  "  desayuno.*'  About  noon  we 
have  a  breakfast  of  eggs,  fish,  and  stew  ;  and  at  the  end  of 
the  day  a  very  good  dinner.  One  of  the  most  common 
dishes  is  puchero,  a  vegetable  soup  cooked  with  boiled 
beef  or  fowl.  The  soup  is  served  first,  and  then  the  meat 
and  vegetables  which  were  cooked  in  it  are  brought  on. 
After  this  we  have  some  kind  of  fried  meat  or  croquettes, 
and  then  perhaps  fish,  and  after  the  fish  a  dessert  and 
fruit,  ending  our  meal  with  cheese  and  black  coffee. 


436  SPAIN. 

We  are  surprised  to  see  the  men  everywhere  smoking  at 
their  meals.  They  light  their  cigars  and  cigarettes  even 
when  the  women  are  present,  and  we  are  horrified  at  times 
to  see  a  woman  take  a  cigarette  and  smoke  with  them. 
This  is  not  common  in  public,  although  many  of  the  Span- 
ish women  smoke  in  their  homes. 

After  dinner  the  people  sit  about  the  table  and  chat,  and 
it  is  the  same  at  the  midday  breakfast  or  luncheon.  All 
business  in  Spain  stops  from  noon  until  two  o'clock,  in 
order  that  the  people  may  get  their  breakfast  and  have 
their  siesta  or  their  rest  or  sleep  after  it.  This  seems  lazy 
to  us,  but  in  Spain  the  climate  is  so  warm  that  it  is  not  well 
for  men  to  work  in  the  middle  of  the  day. 


>>a=lc 


XLV.     IN   THE   CITIES   OF   SPAIN. 

ONLY  a  small  proportion  of  the  Spaniards  live  in  large 
towns.  The  most  of  them  are  farmers  and  fruit 
growers  whose  homes  are  in  villages  scattered  at  wide  dis- 
tances apart  over  the  country.  The  chief  cities,  with  the 
exception  of  Madrid,  which  is  in  the  middle  of  the  plateau, 
a  half  mile  above  the  sea,  are  along  the  seacoast  or  in  the 
river  valleys  of  the  high  plains,  where  the  water  can  be 
used  for  irrigation. 

The  cities  of  the  northern  provinces  are  somewhat  like 
the  other  cities  of  Europe.  Take,  for  instance,  Barcelona, 
where  we  landed  at  the  close  of  our  voyage  from  Naples. 
It  is  as  large  as  Baltimore  and  has  fine  stores,  theaters,  and 
many  cafes.  It  is  the  chief  business  city  of  Spain,  having 
an  excellent  harbor  with  a  rich  country  behind  it.  Its 
chief  street,  the  Rambla,  running  up  from  the  wharves, 


IN  THE  CITIES   OF   SPAIN. 


437 


is  wide,  and  lined  with  rows  of  trees  furnishing  magnifi- 
cent shade.  Barcelona  has  electric  lights,  street  cars,  and 
business  buildings  and  houses  which  would  do  credit  to 
any  great  city. 

Madrid,  the  Spanish  capital,  contains  almost  a  half  mil- 
lion people.  It  is  a  great  square  town  made  up  of  im- 
mense square  buildings  surrounded  by  a  wall  twelve  miles 


m  f^m. 


"W^ 


■"^"■■'"fc^ 


MMm 


Royal  Palace. 


in  length.  It  is  the  highest  of  the  European  capitals,  and 
is  situated  almost  in  the  center  of  the  plateau,  with  dreary 
plains  reaching  out  for  miles  on  every  side.  The  cUmate 
is  far  from  delightful ;  it  is  so  bad  that  its  citizens  are  said 
to  live  in  an  ice  house  for  three  months  of  the  year,  and 
in  a  furnace  for  the  other  nine  months. 

We  spend  a  week  in  Madrid,  and  although  it  is  summer 
find  it  by  no  means  uncomfortable.  We  follow  the  custom 
of  the  Spanish,  and  take  a  siesta  in  the  middle  of  the  day, 


438  SPAIN. 

driving  about  during  the  mornings  and  evenings.  We 
usually  start  out  on  our  excursions  from  the  Puerto  del 
Sol.  This  is  the  chief  public  square  of  the  city,  and  one 
of  the  liveliest  places  in  Europe.  It  is  of  the  shape  of  a 
half  moon,  surrounded  by  high  buildings,  with  ten  wide 
avenues  opening  into  it.  From  here  all  the  street  cars 
start,  and  here  we  can  get  cabs  to  take  us  to  any  part  of 
the  city. 

We  enjoy  the  strange  sights  of  the  square.  There  are 
carriages  of  rich  Spaniards  coming  in  and  going  out  of  it 
in  every  direction ;  there  are  donkeys  and  mules  loaded 
with  all  sorts  of  goods  passing  through,  and  now  and 
then  we  see  a  regiment  of  soldiers  moving  across  to  the 
music  of  a  band.  The  streets  about  the  Puerto  del  Sol 
are  usually  crowded.  There  are  many  well-dressed  men 
and  many  women  in  black  gowns  wearing  black  shawls 
over  their  heads.  There  are  priests  and  monks  in  big  hats 
and  long  gowns  of  various  colors,  some  with  cowls  which 
hang  far  down  their  backs.  There  are  sober-faced  nuns 
and  sisters  of  charity,  and  now  and  then  a  band  of  school 
boys  walking  along  under  the  charge  of  a  priest.  The^ 
Spaniards  are  almost  all  Roman  Catholics,  and  in  many  of 
the  schools  the  priests  are  the  teachers.  Then  there  are 
newsboys  shouting  their  papers,  peddlers  selling  lottery 
tickets,  milkmen,  and  men  of  all  trades.  In  the  evenings 
there  are  many  people  in  cafes  reading,  chatting,  or  play- 
ing dominoes,  and  scores  of  promenaders  on  the  streets 
laughing  and  chatting  with  one  another. 

Every  Sunday  afternoon  during  our  stay  in  Madrid  there 
is  a  bull  fight  in  the  great  ring  which  the  people  have  built 
for  such  shows.  We  are  urged  to  attend,  but  we  refuse. 
We  do  not  approve  of  bull  fighting,  and  we  certainly  would 
not  go  to  a  show  on  Sunday.    Nevertheless,  we  cannot  help 


IN   THE  CITIES  OF  SPAIN. 


439 


learning  a  great  deal  about  the  sport,  for  at  times  our 
Spanish  friends  will  talk  of  nothing  but  bulls  and  bull 
fighting.  Attending  such  shows  is  the  favorite  amusement 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  a  great  bull  fight  here  will  attract 
more  spectators  than  will  gather  to  see  a  base  ball  match 
between  champion  teams  in  one  of  our  cities. 

All  the  large  towns  of  Spain  have  their  bull  rings,  and 
hundreds  of  bulls  are  killed  in  them  every  year.  Much  of 
the  fighting  is  upon  horses,  and  as  many  as  five  thousand 
horses  have  been  gored  to  death  in  one  season. 

At  such  fights  the  wildest  and  fiercest  bulls  that  can  be 
found  are  brought  into  the  circus.  This  is  a  big  ring  with 
walls  about  it,  above  which  are  the  seats  for  the  people. 
In  Madrid  many  thousands  attend,  and  men,  women,  and 
children  of  all  classes  are  among  the  spectators.  We  are 
told  that  even  the  women  and  girls  clap  their  hands  as 
they  watch  their  favorite  actors  torturing  the  poor  animals 
to  death. 

The  fighters  are  both  on  foot  and  on  horseback.  They 
are  dressed  in  gay  costumes,  each  having  his  hair  done  up 
in  a  knot  at  the  back  of  the  neck.  The  men  on  foot  have  red 
blankets  which  they  shake  in  front  of  the  bull,  as  soon  as 
he  enters  the  ring,  to  enrage  him.  As  the  animal  darts  for 
them  they  jump  to  one  side;  and  when  he  turns  about 
they  again  shake  the  red,  the  color  which  every  bull  hates, 
in  his  face.  The  men  on  horseback  tease  him  with  sharp 
lances,  and  as  he  grows  angry  the  men  on  foot  throw 
sharp  arrows  decorated  with  bright-colored  ribbons  into  his 
shoulders  or  back.  The  arrows  have  sharp  points  barbed 
like  a  fishhook,  so  that  they  cannot  come  out,  and  the  rib- 
bons tied  to  their  shafts  wave  gayly  as  the  tormented  bull 
runs  around  the  ring. 

After  a  time  even  the  quietest  animal  can  be  made  angry 

CA.RP.   EUROPE — 27 


440  SPAIN. 

by  such  treatment.  The  beast  soon  becomes  wild  with 
rage;  he  darts  after  the  men  on  horseback,  and  tries  to 
drive  his  horns  into  their  steeds.  Sometimes  a  horse  is 
thrown  to  the  ground,  and  its  rider  gored  to  death. 

When  the  bull  has  reached  this  angry  state,  one  of  the 
men  on  foot  tries  to  kill  him  by  stabbing  him  with  a  sword. 
If  he  makes  just  the  right  stroke,  he  can  drop  him  dead  to 
the  ground ;  but  in  many  cases  the  poor  beast  is  stabbed 
again  and  again.  After  the  bull  is  killed  a  team  of  horses 
is  hitched  to  its  horns,  and  the  band  plays  while  it  is 
dragged  out  and  another  victim  brought  in. 

We  spend  some  time  visiting  the  great  museums  and  art 
galleries  for  which  Madrid  is  noted,  and  at  the  palace  and 
in  the  government  departments  learn  about  the  country. 
Spain  is  ruled  by  a  King,  and  a  Parliament,  the  lower  house 
of  which  is  elected  by  the  people.  The  government  of 
Spain  has  been  bad  in  times  past,  and  this  is  one  reason 
why  the  Spaniards  are  poor.  Both  in  city  and  country 
civilization  is  backward,  and  the  common  people  are  so 
ignorant  that  only  one  in  every  four  can  read  and  write. 
Spain  has  but  few  railroads ;  and  although  it  has  much 
good  land  and  many  rich  mines  of  iron,  copper,  zinc,  quick- 
silver, and  lead,  it  is  poor  and  the  government  is  greatly  in 
debt.  Its  resources  are  little  developed,  and  it  is  not  increas- 
ing in  population  and  wealth  like  many  of  the  other  parts 
of  Europe. 

This  is  partly  due  to  the  character  of  the  Spaniards,  who 
were  so  enriched  by  the  countries  they  obtained  through 
the  discoveries  of  Columbus  and  others  that  they  became 
lazy,  extravagant,  and  cruel ;  for  people  rarely  make  good 
use  of  wealth  they  have  not  earned.  The  Spaniards  then 
secured  fortunes  without  working  for  them,  and  became 
the  richest  nation  of  Europe.      Spain  owned  almost  all 


IN  THE  CITIES   OF  SPAIN.  44 1 

South  America  with  the  exception  of  Brazil,  and  all  Central 
America  and  Mexico,  as  well  as  the  West  Indies  and  the 
Philippine  Islands.  She  enslaved  the  natives  and  brought 
gold  and  silver  by  the  shipload  home  from  those  countries. 
She  established  colonies  in  them,  but  oppressed  the  people 
so  that  they  rebelled  and  one  by  one  broke  away  from  her, 
and  now  Spain  has  no  colonies  of  any  importance. 

From  Madrid  we  travel  by  rail,  visiting  the  various 
provinces  of  the  kingdom.  We  find  that  each  state  has  the 
general  Spanish  characteristics,  but  that  the  people  of 
the  different  sections  each  have  ways  and  customs  of  their 
own.  The  Spaniards  are  made  up  of  several  race  ele- 
ments,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  country  has  been  overrun 
again  and  again  by  other  races.  Spain  was  conquered  by 
the  Carthaginians  and  afterwards  was  long  held  by  the 
Romans ;  these  in  turn  were  overthrown  by  the  Goths 
from  the  north.  In  the  eighth  century  the  Moors  crossed 
the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  from  Africa  and  drove  out  the 
Goths.  The  Spanish  of  to-day  are  the  result  of  the  inter- 
mingling of  these  different  races.  They  resemble  the 
Italians  and  French  more  closely  than  they  do  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  and  Germans. 

The  people  are  proud  and  patriotic  and  very  hospitable 
in  manner.  If  we  admire  anything  in  the  hands  of  a 
Spaniard,  he  straightway  offers  it  to  us,  knowing  we  shall 
refuse  to  accept  it,  and  whenever  we  visit  at  any  man's 
house  he  tells  us  that  the  house  is  ours. 

We  make  one  trip  northward  into  the  provinces  where 
the  Basques  live,  on  the  edge  of  the  Pyrenees.  These  peo- 
ple are  among  the  best  of  the  Spaniards,  being  descended 
from  the  earliest  inhabitants.  The  Basques  are  noted  for 
their  thrift.  Their  country  is  rich  in  minerals,  especially 
in  iron  and  coal,  much  of  which  is  exported  from  the  port 


442 


SPAIN. 


of  Bilbao,  on  the  Bilbao  River,  not  far  from  the  Bilbao 
Bay. 

Another  excursion  is  made  to  Valencia,  the  great  silk 
and  wine  port  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  afterward  we  go 
westward  and  visit  Cordoba,  Granada,  and  Seville.  In  this 
region  the  people  are  somewhat  darker,  and  we  see  many 
who  remind  us  somewhat  of  the  people  of  Turkey.  The 
houses  are  different,  and  some  of  the  cities  are  like  parts 
of  Constantinople.  This  region  was  long  in  the  hands  of 
the  Moors,  a  race  of  warlike  Mohammedans  ^vho  crossed 
the  narrow  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  and  conquered  the  country, 

pushing  their  rule  so  far 
north  that  for  a  time  the 
French  had  the  proverb, 
"  Africa  begins  at  the 
Pyrenees." 

The  Moors  held  south- 
ern Spain  for  several 
centuries,  and  estab- 
lished their  own  civiliza- 
tion in  it.  They  were 
among  the  ablest  and 
most  learned  people  of 
their  time.  They  built 
great  cities  in  Spain, 
and  among  them  Cor- 
doba, which  at  one  time 
had  almost  one  million 
inhabitants.  It  had  hundreds  of  public  schools  and  a  great 
university ;  it  had  one  hundred  public  baths  and  one  hun- 
dred mosques,  the  ruins  of  the  greatest  of  which  are  still 
standing.  We  visit  these  ruins,  and  stroll  about  through 
the  forest  of  columns  which  upheld  the  great  roof.     We 


Interior  of  the  Alcazar. 


IN  THE  CITIES   OF  SPAIN. 


443 


enter  the  Catholic  cathedral,  which  has  been  built  inside 
the  mosque,  and  then  stroll  out  into  the  narrow,  dirty 
streets  of  the  Cordoba  of  to-day.  The  great  glory  of  the 
ancient  Moorish  city  has  long  since  passed  away.  Its 
population  has  dwindled 
to  fifty  thousand,  and 
it  now  ranks  with  the 
smaller  cities  of  Spain. 
Still,  it  has  houses  which 
make  you  think  of  its 
past.  Many  of  them  are 
of  Moorish. architecture, 
with  lattice  work  balco- 
nies, and  with  iron  bars 
over  the  windows  and 
doors. 

In  Granada,  not  far 
away,  we  explore  the 
ruins  of  the  Alhambra, 
the  huge  red  stone  pal- 
ace where  the  Moorish 
kings  lived,  and  then  go 
on  to  Seville.  Here 
there  is  another  great 
Moorish  palace,  the  Alcazar  (al-ka'thar),  and  also  many 
beautiful  Moorish  houses,  with  walls  painted  in  the  bright- 
est colors  and  windows  heavily  barred.  Each  is  built  about 
a  court  in  which  oranges  grow  and  cool  fountains  play. 
There  are  date  trees  on  the  edge  of  the  city,  and,  in  the 
country  about,  groves  of  oranges  and  lemons  and  other 
tropical  fruits.  There  are  tobacco  plantations,  and  we  are 
shown  a  tobacco  factory  employing  five  thousand  women, 
which  is  said  to  be  the  largest  in  Europe. 


' '  There  are  date  trees  on  the  edge  of 
the  city." 


444  SPAIN. 

Seville  is  situated  at  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Gua- 
dalquivir (gwa-dal-kwi-vtr^)  River,  and  hence  has  a  large 
trade.  There  are  steamers  loading  oranges  and  lemons  at 
the  wharves,  and  we  take  passage  on  one  of  the  orange 
steamers.  We  float  down  the  Guadalquivir  through  a 
beautiful  and  almost  tropical  country,  and  at  last  come  to 
Cadiz,  the  chief  Spanish  port  on  the  Atlantic. 

Cadiz  is  situated  on  a  beautiful  bay,  and  is  surrounded 
by  villages.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  settlements  in  Europe, 
having  been  a  thriving  port  in  the  days  of  the  Phoenicians 
as  well  as  in  the  times  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans. 
We  find  many  ships  in  its  harbor,  and  take  passage  on  one 
for  Gibraltar,  for  we  wish  to  see  this  great  English  for- 
tress at  the  entrance  to  the  Mediterranean  before  leaving 
Spain. 

The  voyage  is  a  short  one,  and  we  are  soon  landed  at  the 
foot  of  the  enormous  bare  rock  commanding  the  strait. 
We  can  see  the  forts  before  we  come  to  it.  Two  thousand 
big  cannon  are  looking  at  us  out  of  its  sides,  and  it  fairly 
bristles  with  batteries  and  fortifications.  This  rock  belongs 
to  England,  and,  although  it  is  so  small  that  you  could 
walk  around  it  in  less  than  two  hours,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
important  forts  of  the  world.  It  is  the  key  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  and  through  it,  to  the  Suez  Canal,  and  is  of 
the  greatest  value  in  protecting  the  English  ships,  which 
must  go  through  on  their  way  to  and  from  Asia,  Austra- 
lia, and  the  Mediterranean  ports. 

The  English  have  also  a  naval  station  and  a  coaling  port 
here.  There  is  a  good  harbor  at  the  foot  of  the  rock,  and 
upon  it  a  town  of  about  thirty  thousand  people,  including 
Spaniards,  Greeks,  Arabians,  Italians,  Africans,  and  Eng- 
lish. We  are  met  by  Enghsh  officers  as  we  step  from  our 
steamer,  and  are  delighted  as  we  stroll  about  through  the 


THE  KINGDOM   OF  PORTUGAL. 


445 


Gibraltar. 

town  to  meet  many  people  who  can  speak  our  own  lan- 
guage. The  English  keep  several  thousand  soldiers  at 
Gibraltar  all  the  year  around ;  and  the  king  of  England 
appoints  a  governor  who  has  charge  of  the  colony  and 
who  is  also  commander  in  chief  of  the  fort. 


3j»?C 


XLVI.  THE  KINGDOM  OF  PORTUGAL. 


HOW  our  hearts  jump  as  we  go  to  the  shipping  office 
near  the  wharves  of  Gibraltar  and  take  passage  for 
London !  Our  long  tour  is  now  about  over,  and  we  shall 
soon  be  crossing  the  Atlantic  for  dear  old  America.  We 
have  already  traveled  through  every  country  in  Europe 
except  the  little  kingdom  of  Portugal,  and  of  this  we  shall 


440 


PORTUGAL 


see  something  while  our  steamer  stops  to  take  on  cargo  at 
Lisbon  and  Oporto  on  its  way  north. 

Portugal  is  like  Spain  in  that  it  is  generally  mountainous, 
but  it  has  also  many  rich  plains.  It  is  almost  as  large  as 
Indiana,  but  it  has  far  less  arable  land.  It  is  noted  for 
its  fine  fruit,  its  great  vineyards,  and  forests  of  the  oak 
whose  bark  furnishes  the  cork  of  commerce.     It  raises 


rfnisterr 


Greonwich       0 


many  cattle  and  sheep,  and  thousands  of  hogs  are  fed  on 
the  acorns  which  grow  in  the  woods.  Much  wheat,  corn, 
barley,  and  rye  are  raised  in  the  valleys,  although  not 
enough  to  feed  all  the  people.  It  is  a  land  of  flowers,  and 
roses  bloom  all  the  year  round.  The  breezes  froni  the 
mountains  and  ocean  make  it  cooler  than  Spain,  so  that  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  the  cHmate  is  delightful. 

Portugal  has  several  good  harbors,  and  as  most  of  its 


THE  KINGDOM   OF  PORTUGAL.  447 

people  live  near  the  coast,  they  are  a  great  seafaring  nation. 
They  early  took  to  trading  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  their 
ships  sailed  to  Africa,  to  England,  and  to  all  parts  of  the 
Mediterranean.  The  Portuguese  were  the  first  to  explore 
the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  Bartholomew  Diaz  (de'as),  a 
Portuguese  sea  captain,  was  the  first  white  man  to  reach 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  This  was  five  years  before 
Columbus  discovered  America ;  and  ten  years  later  Vasco 
da  Gama  (ga'ma),  another  Portuguese,  made  the  first 
voyage  around  Africa  to  India.  The  most  of  the  eastern 
coast  of  South  -America  was  discovered  by  Portuguese. 
It  was  a  Portuguese  explorer,  Ferdinand  Magellan,  who 
in  1520  sailed  up  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  and  then,  after 
passing  through  the  Strait  of  Magellan  at  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  continent,  crossed  the  Pacific  and  discov- 
ered the  Philippine  Islands,  where  he  was  killed.  Some 
of  Magellan's  ships  sailed  on  around  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  Europe,  and  thus  made  the  first  voyage  clear 
around  the  world. 

At  that  time  the  Portuguese  went  everywhere,  and  Portu- 
gal established  colonies  in  South  America,  India,  and  other 
places,  so  that  to-day  there  are  more  people  who  speak 
Portuguese  outside  Portugal  than  in  that  country  itself. 
In  South  America,  for  example,  Brazil,  a  state  more  than 
eighty  times  as  large  as  Portugal,  is  inhabited  by  almost 
three  times  as  many  people. 

It  is  but  a  short  voyage  from  Gibraltar  to  Lisbon,  and 
we  are  soon  steaming  in  through  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus 
River  and  up  to  the  city,  which  is  twelve  miles  back  from 
the  coast.  The  river  widens  within  a  short  distance  from 
its  mouth,  and  it  is  so  broad  and  deep  in  front  of  the 
city  that  it  forms  one  of  the  best  harbors  of  Europe.  It 
is  visited  by  vessels  from  all  parts  of  the  world.     We  sail 


448- 


PORTUGAL. 


through  shipping  all  the  way  up  the  river.  The  banks 
are  high  and  steep,  and  upon  them  massive  buildings 
painted  in  the  brightest  of  colors  show  out  through  the 
trees.  There  are  castles  and  churches  on  the  tops  of  the 
hills,  and  beyond  them  are  the  ragged  Cintra  Mountains, 
with  their  peaks  in  the  sky. 

Lisbon  and  its  suburbs  border  the  Tagus  for  more  than 
nine  miles,  the  buildings  extending  for  three  miles  back 


Lisbon. 

from  the  river.  The  city  has  a  population  of  more  than 
three  hundred  thousand,  and  it  looks  quite  imposing  as  we 
steam  up  to  the  'wharves. 

Landing,  we  stroll  about  through  the  streets.  Some  of 
them  are  wider  than  the  best  avenues  of  our  American 
cities.  They  are  lined  with  trees,  and  have  excellent  pave- 
ments. The  buildings  are  large  two  and  three  story  struc- 
tures of  gray  stone,  or  of  brick  covered  with  stucco ;  and 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  PORTUGAL.  449 

many  of  them  are  painted  in  the  most  delicate  tints  of  red, 
blue,  and  yellow,  so  that  the  city  looks  fresh  and  gay. 

The  people  are  as  gay  as  their  homes.  They  are  well 
dressed,  and  wear  clothes  of  bright  colors.  Many  of  the 
men  have  suits  of  white  linen  with  hats  of  white  straw, 
and  the  women  wear  brighter  colors  than  the  women  of 
Spain.  The  Portuguese  are  somewhat  like  the  Spaniards, 
but  not  so  tall  or  so  heavily  built ;  their  faces  are  darker, 
and  we  frequently  meet  one  as  dark  as  a  mulatto.  We 
now  and  then  see  a  negro  among  them,  for  the  Portuguese 
were  great  slave  traders  in  the  past.  They  took  cargoes 
of  negroes  from  Africa  to  Brazil,  and  some  were  brought 
here  to  Portugal. 

How  many  queer  characters  there  are  on  the  street! 
We  meet  peddlers  going  about  with  boxes  and  baskets  on 
their  heads,  crying  their  wares ;  there  are  men  upon  horse- 
back and  ladies  in  carriages ;  there  are  scores  of  donkeys, 
some  ridden  by  men,  and  others  driven  along  loaded  with 
bags,  baskets,  and  even  with  stones.  We  see  many  priests 
and  nuns,  for  the  country  is  Catholic,  and  there  are  churches 
and  monasteries  in  all  of  its  towns. 

We  pass  fountains  at  every  few  steps ;  there  are  more 
than  thirty  in  Lisbon,  all  fed  by  a  great  aqueduct  which 
conducts  water  from  the  hills  eight  miles  away.  Each 
fountain  is  surrounded  by  men,  women,  and  children  who 
are  filling  stone  jars  and  casks  and  carrying  them  off  on 
their  heads  to  their  homes.  Many  of  the  water  carriers 
are  Spaniards  from  the  province  of  Galicia,  who  have 
hired  themselves  out  as  servants  to  the  Portuguese. 

After  our  walk  we  visit  the  library  of  Lisbon,  which  con- 
tains three  hundred  thousand  volumes,  and  then  spend 
some  time  in  the  government  offices.  We  learn  that  Por- 
tugal has  a  King,  and  a  Parliament,  the  lower  house  of 


450  PORTUGAL. 

which  is  elected  by  the  people.  We  find  that  the  country 
is  backward  in  its  adoption  of  modern  improvements.  It 
has  but  few  railroads,  and  not  more  than  one  third  of  the 
people  can  read  and  write.  The  chief  business  is  farming, 
although  in  the  north  there  are  many  cotton  mills  which 
make  gay  colored  calicoes  for  the  African  trade. 

Later  we  leave  Lisbon  for  a  trip  through  the  rich  valley 
of  the  Tagus.  This  river  rises  in  Spain,  and  after  leaving 
the  mountains  flows  through  plains  of  great  fertility  down 
to  the  sea,  dividing  Portugal  into  two  almost  equal  parts. 
There  are  windmills  on  all  sides  of  us  as  we  ride  up  the 
valley;  we  pass  bullock  carts  dragging  great  loads  over 
the  highways,  and  donkeys  and  mules  jogging  along  with 
brushwood,  timber,  and  bags  of  grain  on  their  backs. 
There  are  women  and  men  at  work  in  the  fields.  We 
stop  to  lunch  in  an  orange  grove,  picking  the  ripe  juicy 
fruits  from  the  trees,  and  as  we  near  the  mountains  we 
pass  by  many  large  vineyards. 

We  are  especially  interested  in  cork  trees,  from  whose 
bark  come  the  stoppers  used  in  bottles  all  over  the  world. 
There  are  thousands  of  acres  of  such  trees  in  Portugal  and 
Spain,  some  wild  and  some  in  cultivated  groves.  The  cork 
tree  is  an  evergreen  oak  which,  when  full  grown,  is  forty  or 
fifty  feet  high  and  sometimes  as  much  as  five  feet  in  thick- 
ness. The  corks  are  made  from  the  bark,  which  is  so  soft 
that  it  can  be  easily  cut  into  shape.  The  bark  grows  very 
slowly ;  a  tree  must  be  fifteen  years  old  before  its  bark  be- 
comes an  inch  or  so  thick  and  ready  for  cutting.  After  this, 
if  the  bark  is  properly  taken  off,  the  tree  will  grow  a  new 
coat  every  eight  or  ten  years  for  more  than  a  century. 

In  taking  the  bark,  two  rings  are  cut  around  the  tree, 
one  just  above  the  ground,  and  one  below  the  main 
branches.     Between  these,  cuts  are  made  lengthwise  just 


THE   KINGDOM   OF  PORTUGAL. 


451 


ieep  enough  not  to  injure  the  innermost  bark,  and  the 
strips  are  pried  off.  After  stripping,  the  bark  is  flattened 
out  by  heating  it  over  a  fire.  It  is  scraped  and  cleaned 
and  hardened  by  boiUng  or  steaming,  and  then  it  is  ready 
to  be  shipped  to  the  markets. 


"  —  the  strips  are  pried  off." 

The  bark  is  used  for  making  bottle  stoppers,  cork  legs, 
hat  linings,  the  soles  of  shoes,  life  preservers,  and  many 
other  things.  The  cork  of  Portugal  is  so  valuable  that  it 
brings  in  more  than  three  million  dollars  a  year,  being 
next  to  wine  the  chief  export  of  the  country. 

We  find  men  loading  cork  on  our  steamer  when  we  get 
back  to  Lisbon,  and  as  we  sail  out  of  the  harbor  towards 
the  stormy  Atlantic  we  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  we  have  so 


452 


PORTUGAL. 


much  cork  on  board  that,  if  our  ship  should  be  wrecked,  we 
could  not  possibly  sink. 

We  stay  only  a  short  time  in  Oporto,  the  great  wine  city 
of  Portugal,  loading  a  cargo  of  sherry  and  port,  and  then 
steam  on  to  London.     Here  we  remain  a  few  days  to  re- 


"We  stay  only  a  :,;.^;  t  .;;ne  at  Oporto." 

pack  our  baggage  and  complete  our  list  of  presents  for 
our  dear  friends  at  home,  and  then,  having  finished  our 
long  tour  of  Europe,  take  a  train  for  Liverpool,  where  one 
of  the  fastest  of  the  great  ocean  greyhounds  is  waiting  to 
carry  us  back  to  New  York. 


INDEX. 


Acropolis,  385. 

Alps,  249-271,  275. 

Amsterdam,  145. 

Andersen,  Hans  Christian,  161. 

Antwerp,  127. 

Army  —  Austrian,   284 ;    British,    83  ; 

German,    191-216;    Russian,   338; 

Swiss,  268. 
Astrachan,  357. 
Athens,  384. 
Atlantic  Ocean,  12-15. 
Austria-Hungary,  280-301. 


Bank  of  England,  71. 
Barcelona,  436. 
Basques,  441. 
Bazaars  —  Russian,      343 

369-371- 
Beer,  214,  275. 
Belfast,  31. 
Belgium,  125-133. 
Belgrade,  305. 
Berlin,  203-223. 
Bern,  269. 
Birmingham,  61. 
Blanc,  Mont,  256. 
Bog  lands  of  Ireland,  26. 
Bohemia,  282. 
Bordeaux,  97. 
Bosporus,  Strait  of,  361. 
Bremen,  199. 
Brussels,  129. 
Budapest,  295-300. 
Bulgaria,  308. 


Turkish, 


Bull  fights,  438. 
Burns,  Robert,  46, 
Byzantium,  363. 

Cable,  Atlantic,  84. 

Canals  —  France,  96  ;  Germany,  189, 
192,  198;  Holland,  137,  145;  Man- 
chester, 63;  Sweden,  180;  Venice, 

393. 
Canaries,  231,  342. 
Caspian  Sea,  357. 

Catacombs,  Paris,  119;  Rome,  416. 
Caviar,  345. 
Christiania,  180. 
Clyde,  the,  333. 
Coal  —  Belgium,  127;  England,  56-62; 

France,    104,    105  ;    Germany,    187, 

228,    232 ;    Russia,    343 ;   Scotland, 

S3;  Spain,  441. 
Coblenz,  241. 
Coliseum,  413. 
Cologne,  236. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  408. 
Commerce,    59,    68,    261,    271,    390^ 

400. 
Constantinople,  361-381. 
Copenhagen,  158. 
Cordoba,  442. 
Corinth,  391. 
Cork,  bark,  450. 
Cork,  city  of,  21. 
Cotton,  manufactures,  62-64,  9^,  341* 

353- 
Gzar.  33 1 »  338. 


453 


454 


INDEX. 


Danube,  271-280,  293,  301-31 1. 

Danzig,  202. 
Denmark,  156-163. 
Diamonds,  150. 
Diaz,  Bartholomew,  447. 
Dikes  of  Holland,  135. 
Dresden,  226. 
Droskies,  312. 
Dublin,  27. 

Edinburgh,  44-46. 

Education  —  Denmark,  163;  France, 

49;    Germany,   219,   233;    Greece, 
.  389;  Holland,  143;  Hungary,  299; 

Italy,  417;   Norway,   180;    Russia, 

378;   Scotland,  38  ;   Sweden,  182 ; 

Turkey,  374. 
Eider  ducks,  172. 
Elbe  River,  193,  195. 
England,  48-84. 
Europe,  general,  10. 

Fahrenheit,  203. 

Fairs,  228,  352. 

Farming  — Belgium,  1 25 ;  England,  50- 
55;  France,  88,  91;  Germany,  187, 
224,  276;  Greece,  391;  Holland, 
140  ;  Hungary,  302  ;  Italy,  402  ; 
Ireland,  18-21,  27,  29 ;  Norway, 
178-180;  Russia,  320-330,  356; 
Spain,  431;  Sweden,  185;  Switzer- 
land, 262-266. 

Finland,  338. 

Fiords,  164. 

Firth  of  Forth,  45. 

Florence,  410. 

Flour  mills,  floating,  303. 

Fontainebleau,  118. 

Forests  —  France,  94 ;  Norway,  1 76  ; 
Portugal,  450  ;  Russia,  316,  357. 

France,  85-124. 

Frankfurt,  245. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  447. 
Garnets,  291. 


Genoa,  408. 

Germany,  186-248. 

Giant's  Causeway,  29-31, 

Gibraltar,  444. 

Glaciers,  255-259. 

Glasgow,  32-39. 

Gondolas,  394. 

Gotha  Canal,  180. 

Gothenburg,  180. 

Governments  —  Austria,  283  ;  Den- 
mark, 159 ;  England,  78  ;  France, 
1 1 7- 1 24;  Germany,  215-223;  Hol- 
land, 153;  Italy,  417;  Russia,  329, 
338;  Scandinavia,  184;  Spain,  440; 
Switzerland,  267-270 j  Turkey,  371. 

Granada,  443. 

Greece,  381-392. 

Gulf  Stream,  168. 

Gutenberg,  245. 

Gypsies,  309. 

Hague,  The,  152. 
Hamburg,  195-198. 
Hammerfest,  170. 
Hanseatic  League,  200. 
Harz  Mountains,  231. 
Havre,  296. 
Heidelberg,  246. 
Highlanders,  43. 
Holland,  133-156. 
Hungary,  Austria-,  293-301. 

Ireland,  15-32. 

Iron,   33,   56,   59,  61,   127,   187,   232, 

233.  353»  441. 
Iron  Gate  of  Danube,  307. 
Italy,  392-428. 

Jaunting  cars,  16. 

Kazan,  354. 
Kiel,  192.- 

Killarney,  Lakes,  24. 
Knives,  how  made,  59. 
Koran,  The,  378. 
Kremlin,  The,  347. 


INDEX. 


455 


Lace  making  in  Belgium,  128;  France, 

104;  Ireland,  27. 
Laplanders,  169, 
Leeds,  58, 
Leipzig,  227. 
Limoges,  105. 
Linen,  31,  341. 
Lisbon,  447,  450. 
Lisle,  105, 
Liverpool,  64. 
Lombardy,  402. 
London,  66-84. 
Lubeck,  200. 
Lyons,  100. 

Macaroni,  419. 

Madrid,  437. 

Magyars,  300. 

Mainz,  245. 

Manchester,  62. 

Manufactures  —  Belgium,  126-129; 
England,  55-56;  France,  95-106; 
Germany,  227-233  ;  Holland,  149- 
151  ;  Italy,  405,  407,  419;  Russia, 
340-343  ;  Sweden,  181  ;  Switzer- 
land, 261;  Turkey,  371. 

Markets  —  Berlin,  214  ;  London,  68  ; 
Moscow,  345;  Paris,  113. 

Marseilles,  100. 

Midnight  Sun,  163-175. 

Milan,  407. 

Mines,  33,  56,  62,  104,  105,  127,  187, 
232,  233,  282,  343,  441. 

Mohammedans  —  Russian,  355  ;  Span- 
ish, 442;  Turkish,  361-381. 

Moors,  442. 

Moscow,  340,  351. 

Mosques,  365,  375-378- 

Munich,  275. 

Naples,  417-421. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  1 21-123,  132. 

Netherlands,  The,  133-156. 

Newcastle,  57. 

Nizhni  Novgorod,  351. 

North  Cape,  173. 


Norway,  163-180. 
Nuremberg,  273. 

Odessa,  31 1-3 14. 
Olives,  432. 
Opals,  291. 
Oporto,  452. 

Paisley,  39. 

Paris,  106-125. 

Parks  —  Berlin,  206  ;  London,  77  ; 
Vienria,  286. 

ParUament  —  Denmark,  159  ;  Eng- 
land, 76-81  ;  France,  123  ;  Ger- 
many, 217;  Holland,  153. 

Peat,  25. 

Peter  the  Great,  336. 

Petroleum,  358-360. 

Pisa,  410. 

Poles,  339. 

Pompeii,  422,  426. 

Pope,  the,  415. 

Porcelain,  105,  152,  233. 

Portugal,  445-453- 

Potato,  1 8,  20. 

Railroads,  49,  86,  88,  108,  176,  190, 
206,  223,  317. 

Reindeer,  170. 

Rhine,  the,  234-248. 

Ribbons,  104. 

Rigi,  M.,  252. 

Rivers  —  Arno,  410  ;  Clyde,  333  ; 
Danube,  271-280,  301-31 1  ;  Elbe, 
193*  195;  Forth,  45;  Garonne,  97; 
Loire,  96;  Main,  245;  Mersey,  64; 
Po,  402;  Rhine,  234^248;  Rhone, 
100;  Seine,  108;  Tiber,  411 ;  Tagus, 
447,  450;  Thames,  67;  Vistula,  202; 
Volga,  351-357. 

Rome,  411-417. 

Roumania,  306,  309. 

Russia,  31 1-36 1. 

St.  Bernard  dogs,  260. 
St.  Etienne,  104. 


456 


INDEX. 


St.  Gothard,  Mt.,  258. 

St.  Petersburg,  330-339. 

Salt,  232,  276,  278. 

Samara,  355. 

San  Marino,  410. 

Scandinavia,  163-185. 

Scheveningen,  153-155. 

Scotland,  32-48. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  39,.47. 

Seine,  the,  107. 

Servia,  305. 

Seville,  444. 

Shakespeare,  William,  65, 

Sheffield,  59. 

Shipbuilding,  23>  202. 

Silk,  10 1,  405-407. 

Slovaks,  301. 

Spain,  428-445. 

Stettin,  201. 

Stockholm,  182. 

Stores  —  Berlin,  220;  Constantinople, 

369;  Denmark,  159;  Holland,  149; 

Russian,  313,  343,  353. 
Storks,  139,  193,  305. 
Strassburg,  247. 
Stratford-on-Avon,  65. 
Sultan,  the,  364,  372-374,  378. 
Sunflowers,  356. 
Switzerland,  249-271. 

Tagus  River,  447-450. 
Tartars,  355. 


Thames  River,  67. 
Tiflis,  360. 
Toys,  229,  273. 
Tromso,  170. 
Trondhjem,  166. 
Trossachs,  the,  42. 
Tula,  341. 
Tulips,  141. 
Turks,  364. 
Tweed,  39. 

Ulm,  272. 

United  Kingdom,  15-84. 

Venice,  391-401. 
Versailles,  n8. 
Vesuvius,  421-428. 
Vienna,  280-291. 
Vineyards,  97,  240,  391,  431. 
Vistula  River,  202. 
Volga  River,  351-357- 
Vosges  Mts.,  105. 

Warsaw,  339. 
Waterloo,  132. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  76,  132. 
Westminster  Abbey,  81. 
Windmills,  139. 
Wines,  97,  240,  391,  431. 
Wool,  manufactures,  27,  39, '58,   105, 
128,  149,  229,  341. 


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